POTASH FROM ALSACE - Flat enamelled plate, single-sided, circa 1950-55. Signed "Hansi". Good condition, superb colours, very good brightness (minor chips in left margin). 60 x 42.6 cm Signed "Émaillerie Alsacienne Strasbourg Hoenheim" in the lower margin. -Represents the Alsatian stork- The only potash deposit in France (Mulhouse) discovered by chance in 1904 by Amélie Zürcher and Joseph Vogt. Potash production began in 1910 at the Amélie mine in Wittelsheim, and mining stopped in 2002. Potash": a word of Dutch origin (potasch) meaning "pot ash" and referring to the potassium carbonate obtained from wood ash: water was slowly poured over burnt wood ash, and the resulting solution was boiled in large pots until a white solid was formed, which was used as a fertiliser (source: mines.musees-mulhouse.fr and lithotheque.site.ac-strasbourg.fr ).