Vintage View: Deliberate bad taste

KITSCH is often described as a deliberate attempt at bad taste, a slap in the face for respectable, classic ‘acceptable’ forms in just about anything around the house.

Other commentators call it an exercise in ‘reverse snobbery.’

Kitsch is a laugh too loud in shape, subject and colour, an ornament so saccharine cute that you develop a dental cavity, or something so naively formed and finished, (it only appears to be), that it makes you want to rush out and buy a few tubs of Playdoh and have a go.

Since the Victorians started playing around with popular themes in glass and ceramics to cheer a new middle class buyer, kitsch pieces have held a very special place in the heart of collectors. Cultural icons — pretty girls in fashion dress, adorable baby animals, cherubic children and dolly mixture colours — kitsch remains oddly mesmeric even to those who scream out loud at the sight of a straining matador painted on velvet.

The Germans are still fascinated with kitsch and their design academies were the first to make a study of these curious phenomena over 40 years ago.

There are well made kitsch pieces from the 19th century right up to the present day worthy of a buy. Carlton’s iridescent fairy lustres and formed vegetable ware, Goebels sentimental, rosy-cheeked infant figurines and good old Clarice Cliff’s art deco fantasies can all easily be described as kitsch. Startling, fabulous with fun, they were affordable, gaudy, commercial pieces made to be used and enjoyed everyday.

Whether it’s a Murano clown in glass or a modern piece of sling-shot design in popping primary colours made last week, vouch for originality, things fit for purpose, (if not purely decorative), and that reflect the spirit of their time.

Good kitsch costs and it’s sometimes a matter of what the market will bear rather than the worthiness of those flying duck wall plaques. Short runs, mistakes that stopped productions and unsuccessful lines that were pulled after a season, produce the rarities, and joining a collectors’ club, you’ll soon find out what’s most desirable in any genre and why.

Boot sales offer up a festival of the most eye-watering kitsch pieces, often for next to nothing. The resurgence of mid-century modern styling has tickled today’s designers to deliver new interpretations of popular things from the 40s right through to the 1980s, so don’t just hunt around secondhand. Keep an eye on what high street retailers with a mission for good design such as Ikea, and ingenious Irish crafters such as Klickity and Jennifer Walsh have to offer on the high street.