5. Early RAVI-Kunst
5. June 2020
RAVI-Kunst was a 1940ies to 1970ies manufacturer of German Wall Figures located in Hamburg, in the north of Germany. Besides the Wall Plaques there were also very lovely jumping jacks. Ravi-Kunst came up with many motives that you do not find among Hellerkunst or Mertens Kunst items, for example a weather prophet dwarf with a huge toadstool hat. The name Ravi-Kunst comes from the surnames of the two young women who founded it, Erna Rath and Lisa Viertel. About dating the figures: When Lisa Viertel had produced on her own (from late 1930s), she used a paper stripe on the back. After she and Erna Rath founded Ravi-Kunst, the products got stamps. My guess is that the old products Lisa Viertel still had also got the “new” Ravi-Kunst stamp.
On this page you’ll find the early products with the juggling dwarf stamp on the back. Most of them also still wear the white paper stripe with the wall figures’s name on the back.
Details: Gnome Hamburg Art Lisa Viertel Erna Rath Handmade (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork...
Details: Brothers Grimm Beautiful Spinning Wheel Lisa Viertel Erna Rath (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy...
This angel still has the paper stripe of Lisa Viertels early years. Details: Cloud Wings Light Pink Light Yellow Light...
Details: Wilhelm Busch Funny Hair Antique Toy Hamburg Lisa Viertel Erna Rath (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft...
On the back there is the name Little Thumb. This is rather early Ravi-Kunst. You can see the juggling dwarf...
Details: Pipesmoker Erna Rath Lisa Viertel (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork Vintage Nursery Old)
Details: Vintage Night Light Polka Dots Endearing Vintage Toy (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork...
Details: Cape Flute Key Holder Gnome Lightblue (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork Vintage Nursery...
Details: Flute Brothers Grimm German Legend Rat Rats (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork Vintage...
Details: Polka Dots Beard Gnome Cute Lisa Viertel Erna Rath (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy...
Details: Rabe Baumstamm Garderobe Bluse Reizend (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork Vintage Nursery Old)
Details: Hare Wheelbarrow Funny Meadow Gnome (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork Vintage Nursery Old)
Details: Flower Gnome Antique Toy Key Holder Antique Toy (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork...
With additional side painting. Details: Goal Post Cool Pipe Red Vest Juggling Dwarf Stamp (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood...
Details: Green Base, Naked Legs, Hoodie Dress (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork Vintage Nursery...
Details: Sunflower Flower Lightblue Dress Beautiful (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork Vintage Nursery Old)
Lisa Viertel and Erna Rath designed many key holders, most of them dwarfs. Details: Green Base, Gnome, Naked Legs. (German...
Hand-painted on plywood with additional side painting. 21 cm height. (German Wall Figure Märchen Holz Bild Tierfreund Animal Friend Gnome...
Hand-painted on plywood with additional side painting. The design is by Lisa Vierel, but the name on the back is...
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood. One of the earliest Ravi Snow Whites. I love the double layered dress. This Snow White reminds...
You can feel the paint layers. That was typical of Lisa Viertel, the Co-founder and designer of Hamburg RAVI-Kunst. She...
Age: 1940s. Producer: RAVI-Kunst Hamburg. Height: 13 cm. Hand-painted on plywood. The designer's name was Lisa Viertel; she also was...
Hand-painted on plywood. Height: 21 cm. Very early RAVI-Kunst with paper stripe on the back: "M/26". Attributes: Grey cat, Green...
Details: Brothers Grimm Hamburg Craft Polka Dots Cute Funny (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork...
It belongs to the four seasons series. This is one of the most beautiful wood pictures by Ravi-Kunst. ("J/1 Frühling...
The two Ravi women produced a seasons series, this is the winter motive. I like her fluffy and rounded clothes,...
With this beautiful and somewhat sad 1940er Golden Key Child I want to thank one of the wonderful artists of...
Hand-painted on plywood, 21cm. The early RAVI-Kunst jumping jacks were great, unusual ideas and very solid. All RAVI-Kunst jumping jacks...
Hand-painted on 4mm-plywood with much varnish. ("RAVI-Kunst Handarbeit M/18 Däumelinchen")
Hand-painted on plywood. Here you have a cornucopia of cuteness details that make you look closer: The small feather hat,...
Hand-painted on 4mm-plywood, 28cm. A very unusual motive by Lisa Viertel. She used to experiment quite a bit when she...
All the jumping jacks by RAVI-Kunst had great quality! Each was hand-painted and had solid metal joints. I have not...
The name Ra-Vi comes from the surnames of the founder ladies: Erna Rath (right) and Lisa Viertel (left).
The Ravi-Kunst years were her happiest, she told a friend, although she parted from Ravi-Kunst in 1963, after almost 25...
Hand-painted on plywood. "GF/5 Freundschaft / Friendship"
Hand-painted on plywood. Light blue with pink flowers - always a wonderful color scheme! And the gold of the tiny...
It's hand-painted on wood with varnish. This is a beautiful Mother Holle, just look at the details: The shadows on...
Hand-painted on plywood, 21cm. This is early RAVI-Kunst - why? Look at the back. You will see the little paper...
Hand-painted on wood with much varnish. I love the wonderful color scheme with the golden crowns, the golden ball and...
This version with the grey dress is early RAVI-Kunst. Later on RAVI's favorite became the radiant red and blue goose...
On the back is a label sticker with "Little Red Riding Hood", which is obviously a mistake. Or there was...
Look at the beautiful colors and the tenderness of this wood picture! Lisa Viertel drew those round and fluent lines....
Hand-painted on plywood, 20cm. At first glance I thought this was Hans in Luck. But the label on the back...
Hand-painted on plywood, 18cm. This seems to belong to a Kindergarten series by RAVI. On each of them you see...
The big red umbrella makes a nice contrast to the autumn colors and the rain. ("J/3 Herbst autumn") (German Wall...
Details: Seasons Series Summer Party Hairwreath Flowerwreath Scandinavia (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy Fretwork Vintage...
Anneli is the sister of Little Peter. The early RAVI-Kunst wood pictures of this story are wearing nightshirts. 20 years...
Hand-painted on plywood. Look at the red label: Lisa Viertel, designer, painter and owner of Ravi-Kunst produced in Hamburg and...
Hand-painted on wood with varnish. I like the high collar and the sleeves with a touch of orange. Lisa Viertel...
Hand-painted on plywood. I love the special shade of light blue that Lisa Viertel used, especially in the first years...
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood. I love the soft color scheme. Lisa Viertel designed so many dwarfs, she had to describe them....
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood. Lisa Viertel designed her own clothes, so her wall figures have great clothes, too. Many of the...
Hand-painted on 3mm quality plywood. Lisa Viertel designed many of those key holders. Most were dwarfs, but there were also...
This is a key hanger - Ravi produced many differnt ones. A rather grotesque dwarf, with his naked head and...
Hand-painted on plywood with varnish. A smiling mushroom is a rare motive on Wooden Wall Figures. RAVI also did a...
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood, 24cm. I like the color scheme with lots of light blue.
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood, 23cm. I like the double dresses by Ravi-Kunst. This girl has a yellow dress with a red...
Hand-painted on plywood. One of the great success wall figures were the red-blue goose girls. First with, later without base....
Details: Brothers Grimm Yellow Messenger Bag Old Fashioned Feather Hat (German Wall Figure Fairy Tale Wood Picture Handicraft Antique Toy...
Early Ravi-Kunst, hand-painted on wood. Gretel pulling her brother away from danger, an endearing idea.
Hand-painted on plywood. I think it's supposed to be a stick, but I like to think of it as baguette....
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood. On the back: "KG/3 Kind mit Gänsen / Child with goose" and Dwarf stamp.
Hand-painted on plywood. Cute and rare. Height: 13 cm. It was supposed to become a part of a children's coat...
Hand-painted on plywood. Height: 25 cm. Thinking about how fragile a child's soul can be, this motive speaks of trust...
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood. A red base, that's rare. The color scheme's beautiful here, what with the yellow bedspread and the...
Hand-painted on 3mm-quality-plywood. Lisa Viertel loved Polka Dots. She tailored her own clothes, a polka dot dress and a polka...
Hand-painted on wood with varnish and nice thick colors. Rather rare with his turban and somewhat oriental appearance.
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood. Look at the great shape of this wood figure, and then imagine this: It was produced in...
Hand-painted on plywood. (Z/2 Zwerg mit Blume / dwarf with flower / Dwarf stamp)
Hand-painted on plywood. There are two versions of this Snow White, one with light blue tunic and one with light...
Hand-painted on plywood. There are two versions of this Snow White, one with light blue tunic and one with light...
Hand-painted on plywood. I have known almost 10 different RAVI-Kunst Snow Whites so far. Which each new design came new...
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood with varnish. There is a Snow White and Rose Red by Hellerkunst. Look it up, the bear...
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood with shiny varnish. A fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. ("The girl with the matchsticks").
Very rare, hand-pained on wood. Candles on wall figures are always pretty!
Hand-painted on wood, thick colors with varnish. Great color scheme with red, yellow and three shades of green. It is...
Hand-painted on plywood. Fly agaric mushrooms are very popular, and this one is breathtaking! The mushroom is smiling and he...
Hand-painted on plywood. There are at least four different Ravi-Kunst dwarfs with the same color scheme: Light blue dwarf, red...
Hand-painted on plywood. Count the eyes! No joke, that really makes a big difference in German Wall Figures. Most are...
Hand-painted on wood with thick paint and a thick layer of varnish. A cute motive and rare, too.
Hand-painted on plywood. I have known 9 different Ravi-Kunst Snow Whites so far. Which each new design came new variations...
Hand-painted on plywood. I have known 9 different Ravi-Kunst Snow Whites so far. Which each new design came new variations...
Hand-painted on 3mm-plywood. Lisa Vietel called him "Cockie"! ("Ravi-Kunst handgemalt HT/9 Cockie" / Dwarf stamp and paper stripe).
Hand-painted on plywood. Seven Parts is much for a Ravi-Kunst jumping jack. Normally you've got the body plus arms and...
Hand-painted on plywood. A lucky dwarf with the fly agaric hat and the lucky clover! ("Pilzmaennchen")
Hand-painted on plywood. This duck is a rather unique design, I have only seen it by Ravi-Kunst so far.
Hand-painted on plywood. All the jumping jacks by Ravi-Kunst had great quality! They all had solid metal joints. I have...
Hand-painted on plywood. This Mister Punch was produced it in different color variations. I like it very much. ("Ravi-Kunst Handgemalt...
Hand-painted on plywood. This one is so perfect it seems to have been a special order. His history: He had...
Hand-painted on plywood. This Mister Punch seems to have been quite successfull, Ravi produced it in different color variations. I...
Hand-painted on plywood. Sometimes you'll find little paper slips with numbers and letters on Ravi-Kunst's backsides, and they are really...
Hand-painted on plywood. It’s double cute: The bunny and the little chick on the apron.
Hand-painted on plywood. All the jumping jacks by Ravi-Kunst had great quality! Each had solid metal joints. I have not...
Hand-painted on plywood. Plywood is used for wall figures in order not to get warped wood. A definitive Ravi-Kunst highlight!...
Hand-painted on plywood, 18cm height. Die USL "SS USA" was a Transatlantic Passenger Liner between New York and Europe from...
Hand-painted on plywood, 12cm Höhe. This was supposed to become part of a children's coat rack. (Child)