09/16/2026
🖤 WICKED VINTAGE WEDNESDAY 🖤
At first glance, it’s a romantic old porcelain tray covered in roses.
Turn it over, and the story gets considerably more interesting.
Stamped beneath the glaze is:
PROV. SAXE.
E.S.
GERMANY
The initials identify Erdmann Schlegelmilch, a porcelain manufacturer established in Suhl, Thuringia, in 1861. The factory produced decorative and household porcelain for decades, growing substantially around the turn of the 20th century before economic upheaval eventually brought production to an end in 1937.
This particular Prov. Saxe E.S. Germany mark is documented from 1902 onward, placing the tray firmly within the era when German porcelain was being produced for an increasingly international market.
And the design is pure period romance: sweeping pink roses, softly molded edges, raised scrollwork and remnants of metallic trim. It was made to be decorative, elegant and proudly displayed—not hidden in a cabinet.
More than a century later, that is exactly what makes pieces like this fascinating.
They survived changing tastes, changing homes, two world wars, economic collapse and generations of owners—yet somehow the roses are still here.
Forgotten Pieces. New Chapters.