Elly Strobachova – Konigova was born as
Eliska Kvasnickova one hundred years ago on February 5th 1908 in Usti nad Labem.
She was a graduate at the State Vocational School of Ceramics in Teplice during the era of a principal academic sculptor
Johannes Watzal had co-worked with the Duchcov porcelain factory practically since her graduation. Mainly in the 30’s and 40’s she was a respected “core” designer of this firm. We can just look at prices in auction salesrooms or ask collectors what significance
does the “Strobach” signature have in their field, especially on statuettes in her unique Art Deco style. Elly Strobachova did not have an easy life; she first married Doctor Bohosudov Strobach
MD, though soon she became a widow when her husband died with acute tuberculosis. However
during this time she was making excellent pieces, modelled from outstanding female nudes, mundane dancers (especially exclusive
forms of table lamps) and figures of chubby children and humanized animals, which were popular at the time. It is important to note that most of her models have been continuously manufactured until recently.
In the 50’s the Duchcov porcelain factory
experienced a really tragic “cultural revolution” by pronouncing its existing production as kitsch and by the
subsequent inexcusable destruction of original forms that now have incalculable value. Although this blunder was overcome
the losses are irrevocable. The models, which had been criticized as kitsch had
the biggest success in the world when the porcelain factory experienced an upturn. Elly
Strobachova remarried as Konigova, until her retirement she had to face the ideological pressure of the evaluation commission
lead by professor Otto Eckert, who at the beginning of the 60’s also forced out to a Munich exile (based on his own
words) Karl Lerch, the sculptor who was the author of the Monument of Duchcov Viaduct. In 1966, Elly Konigova along with her
sister and her husband legally followed him.
On a postcard that she sent to an academic sculptor
Frantisek Rebel, she signed it Elly Queen, which to people not understanding the German language was a play on her real surname. The sculptor Elly Konigova was a real queen at the sculpture studio at the porcelain
factory that has the word “royal” in its name. At the end of her life she lived in Geerensried near Munich where
she lived until an old age; she died on March 14th, 2002 shortly after her 94th birthday. The assets
of her estates (including a photographic and film archives of her husband) are stored in a local museum: porcelain pieces
of Elly Konigova are also at the city museum in a town called Miltenberg in Mohan. Many thanks to Pavel Koukal at the Royal
Dux Factory
