Marian Mahler Mid century textiles
Hi !
I thought that it’s a while since I have said hello to everyone reading my posts. Hey what a strange and varied time we are in !
I hope this finds you all well and that you are discovering some simple things to inspire and interest you. For myself I think it is all about keeping myself active, engaged and present, even when I have to spend copious amount of hours indoors or at home. Please feel free to peruse the back issues of posts on my site, they go back over the last ten years and there are over 1200 of them for you to read, look at and hopefully loose yourselves in. Do let me know if you find a connection in one or more of them and I hope you find them inspirational and engaging.
Remember with Christmas fast approaching, to shop small and support small businesses this year more than ever. We all need to put our savings into shopping small and keeping those creative tiny companies alive and well or come next year, they may no longer be around. If you like Ceramics then please take a look from my stories and feed what I have available for sale and I can ship my work to anywhere worldwide, even direct to your chosen recipient ! Follow me today on Instagram @fishinkblog.
So.. onto today’s creative artist.
Marian Mahler (1911-1983) Austrian born had trained at the Kuntgewerbeschule in Vienna (1929-32) and at the Royal State Academy, with some of her early designs being produced by the Wiener Werkstatte.
She arrived in Britain in 1937 as Marianne Mahler and worked as a free-lance designer, having supplied leading firms with her designs before the war.
During the early 1950’s she produced many designs for Allan Walton Textiles, Edinburgh Weavers, Donald Brothers Ltd. and Helios.
Her best client was David Whitehead in his ‘Contemporary Prints’ range. Whitehead’s were Britain’s most dynamic printed textile company, based in Rawtenstall, Lancashire. By 1948 the company was directed by architect Dr John Murray, whose ambition was to establish the Company in the forefront of contemporary design and to make good designs available on the mass market.
He wrote an article on his philosophy The cheap need not be cheap and nasty which was published in Design , Dec 1950. Twenty of their designs were chosen to be displayed at the Festival of Britain and on the SS Campania, the touring ship of the festival.
She also created a few book covers for Penguin books too.
Lovely work and a great influence on British fabrics during the 50’s and 60’s. If you liked this post you will also be interested in the one on Lucienne Day and Barbara Brown. Apologies if I may have accidently included one of Lucienne Day’s designs in with Marian’s above, they both used similar motifs at times an so it is easy to get them confused.
fishinkblog.com 
Pretty sure at least one of these designs is Lucienne Day
It’s a possibility as their designs are a little similar at times, but thanks for pointing that out 🙂
That was an incredibly rich period of design that people are still looking back at for inspiration.
Thank you for posting! I love the Penguin covers, so charming. This has filled me with joy this evening x