The
displayed items at our Metalware category were
made by various makers, currently not well known as Pal-Bell or Oppenheim, but they are
already collectible and we predict that they will become more known in future.
Some of those makers were employees at Pal-Bell and after a few years of 'learning the
business' they opened their own workshop. Oppenheim was already known prior to the 1950s
and made items marked: "Hand Made in Palestine". Later they bought Pal-Bell from
Moshe Klein and continued some product lines using Pal-Bell's moulds and their new logo.
During the transition period, we may see items marked with both logos and some have no
marking at all, but the items were made by using the original Pal-Bell moulds. There are
many original items made by Pal-Bell, not marked or not listed in the catalogues. Some
were not marked because of technical reasons, no place to put the marks, like
"Zohar" candlesticks 681 or even not all pitchers "Beer Sheva" # 61
have Pal-Bell's logo or name, just "Made in Israel" in English and in Hebrew.
Because certain items were made in a modular interchangeable manner, we may see certain
'marriages', which might be very successful, all of them however, are highly collectible.
The early Pal-Bells are more
valuable and they were made of solid and heavier material and with darker green
'verdigris' plating than the later ones.
It was a very 'rich' period with
designers such as Raban and others, new immigrants from Europe and Russia that contributed
significantly to innovative and unique Israeli products.
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