Bauhaus Ceramic Alpha Omega Cruet Pair by Theodor Bogler, 1948-1968

Bauhaus geometry in devotional service: a small ceramic cruet pair from the Ars Liturgica workshop at Maria Laach Abbey, produced under the direction of Theodor Bogler. One cruet is glazed in vivid turquoise; the other in warm ivory. Both share the same resolved form — a spherical body, short cylindrical neck, conical stopper, and small loop handle at the shoulder. The Alpha (Α) and Omega (Ω) — first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, long used as a Christian symbol — is the sole ornament on each piece, incised into the body and infilled with contrasting dark slip. It sits on these forms with the same quiet authority as any Bauhaus geometric mark: symbol reduced to line, meaning carried through form alone. Both carry the gold foil Maria Laach Abbey label on the base, identifying them as products of Bogler's Ars Liturgica workshop. The turquoise example also bears a paper stock label marked 702/12. Each retains its original stopper, which seats cleanly. No chips, cracks, or losses. About the Ars Liturgica Workshop and Theodor Bogler: Among the most significant ceramicists of the Weimar Bauhaus — alongside Marguerite Friedlaender-Wildenhain and Otto Lindig — Bogler trained at the Dornburg ceramics workshop under sculptor Gerhard Marcks. His functional designs, including the celebrated combination teapot and mocha machine, are held in museum collections including the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. After entering the Benedictine Order at Maria Laach in 1927, he continued designing for ceramics manufacturers while building his practice at the abbey. From 1948 until his death in 1968, he directed the Ars Liturgica art workshops — the abbey's own production and distribution operation — where he applied his Bauhaus-trained formal vocabulary directly to liturgical vessel forms. These bottles, bearing the Ars Liturgica label, were made and sold through that workshop during those two decades.