The porcelain factory Christian Seltmann GmbH was founded by Christian Seltmann (born 1870) in Weiden, Bavaria, in 1910. Christian Seltmann started out as an apprentice porcelain maker, who got a scholarship to the porcelain school Teplitz-Schönau due to excellent performance.
Already as a 26 year old Christian Seltmann became foreman at Arzberg. His ambition was for something greater however and in the year 1901 he and his brother Johan built a porcelain factory in Vohenstrauß. The business went well and within a few years the factory employed 600 people. Disagreement between Christian and Johan about incorporating the factory caused problems, however. Johan wanted to incorporate, but Christian was very much against it. This led to a break between them, after which Christian Seltmann left the factory and started his own.
Thus began the porcelain factory Christian Seltmann for consumer and luxury porcelain. The factory started out with three ovens and already in 1913 two more could be added.
The factory became a family business and the son of Christian Seltmann Wilhelm Seltmann took over the business after his father. He shared his fathers ambition and soon extended the business by buying the porcelain factories Erbendorf and Krummennaab in 1939 and 1940 respectively.
After the war the factories in Erbendorf and Krummennaab used to house American soldiers, which led to great damage to the factory machinery. Thanks to the great dedication and loyalty of the employees the factories started to produce again, however.
In 1957 Wilhelm Seltmann once again expanded the business by buying the Royal privileged porcelain factory Tettau that have been owned by Seltmann ever since.
Seltmann like so many other porcelain factories produced wall plates in the 70's and 80's. Among others a series of plates were produced for the Swedish market with motifs from the 25 Swedish landscapes.
In the 1990's Seltmann bought the Thuringian companies Aeltesten Volkstedter Porzellanmanufaktur, Unterweißbacher Werkstätten für Porzellankunst and its art department Schwarzburger Werkstätten für Porzellankunst, Porzellanmanufaktur Scheibe Alsbach and Porzellanmanufaktur Plaue after the fall of the Berlin Wall and the selling of the nationalised factories in Eastern Germany. These four factories came to form the division Gläsernen Porzellanmanufaktur from 2007.
Seltmann is still today a family owned company.
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