Antique German Pottery.
Stoneware
Stoneware was first made in Europe in the 12th century by potters in the Rhine valley, where there were abundant supplies of wood for fuel. Steinzeug as stoneware is known in Germany, was made mostly in the Rhineland, but also in Saxony. Cologne was the first important centre for the production of Renaissance-style Rhenish stoneware in the first half of the 16th century. There are obvious regional differences, it is not always easy to distinguish the wares of different Potteries located close to each other. In terms of production, almost the entire output was of drinking vessels fitted with pewter lids. The few exceptions include flasks (resembling tea-caddies), inkwells, table salts, and small tureens. The complete absence of stoneware dishes or plates indicates a German preference for pewter or wood for use on the table.
SIEGBURG
Siegburg became a centre for stoneware production in the I 5th century. The most celebrated wares, dating from the second half of the 16th century, are Schnelle tall, tapered tankards), decorated with shallow reliefs Moulded separately and carefully scaled onto the sides. Subject-matter tends to be either biblical, allegorical, or heraldic. Other wares include Sturzbecber (”somersault cups”) and Schnabelkanne (”beak jugs”). The most important family of potters were the Knutgen, active during the late 16th century. At the beginning of the 17th century the industry declined, owing to increased competition from other Rhenish centres.
RAEREN
Stoneware appears to have been produced in Raeren near Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) from the mid-1 5th century. Early wares arc virtually indistinguishable from those of Cologne or other Rhenish areas, and it was not until after the mid-16th century that an individual style developed. This was a grey-bodied stoneware covered In a lustrous brown glaze. The leading makers were members of the Mennicken family, particularly Jan Emens Mennicken. Wares include handsome, bulbous-bodied drinking jugs, the profiles of which reflect the legs on late Elizabethan tables or buffets; these are decorated with a broad central band of relief-moulded panels containing arcading, religious subjects, Holy Roman Emperors, or dancing peasants. With their complex, graduated borders of tiny medallions and Kerbschnitt (carved, diagonal crosshatching), these vessels have a weighty, architectonic appeal. Raeren continued as a major centre through the 19th century, producing 16th- and 17th-century-style wares and beer-mugs.
WESTERWALD AND CREUSSEN
The region known as the Westerwald is noted for its manufacture of grey stoneware detailed in cobalt blue and manganese brown. From what survives it is evident that the output was almost wholly of hollow vessels such as the Enhhalskrug (narrow-necked jug) and the
(bulbous globular tankard). Many of these jugs are stamped with a date and the monograms of English monarchs, such as “Anna Regina” and “Georgius Rex”, suggesting that they were intended for export to England. Production has continued in the region up to the present day.
Creussen (Kreussen), near Bayreuth, was a centre for the production of stoneware from the late 16th century until the 1730s. The product was a light-brownish-grey ware covered in a rich, chocolate-brown salt glaze,
and output consisted mainly of tankards and flasks with metal screw-tops. Decoration was applied, moulded, or enamelled, and included hunting scenes, the 12 Apostles, and figures symbolizing the planets.
• BODY off-white (Siegburg), grey (Frechen, Cologne, Raeren, and Westerwald), or dark brown (Creussen)
• GLAZE salt glaze
• FORMS tankards, narrow-necked and spouted jugs, bellarmincs (globular bottles with a bearded mask at the neck, made famous by those produced in Cologne)
• DECORATION applied, enamelled, and moulded: strapwork and ornamental motifs taken from pattern books; biblical scenes; Holy Roman Emperors; rich figural scenes; coats of arms
• FAKES beware of 19th-century copies of 16th-century Schnellen, the bases of which are too finely finished and very flat
Marks
Early wares may bear the initials of the potter or decorator incorporated into the design; marks never appear on the base until the 19th century; factory marks
as opposed to individual’s initials were unknown before the 19th century
Faience
The technique of manufacturing tin-glazed earthenware was spread throughout Europe to France, the Netherlands, Britain, and the German-speaking world in the early I 6th century by itinerant potters. German tradition has it that tin-glazed earthenware was first produced by the stove-makers of the south in Bavaria and the Tyrol, and there are a few pieces dated to this time. The majority of German faience, however, dates from the late 17th
I until the early 19th century.
BEFORE 1700
The arrival of Dutch potters in Frankfurt and Berlin in the later 17th century encouraged the development of German pottery. The first centres of production were Hanau (1661), Frankfurt ( 1666), and Berlin ( 1678). Much of the output at this time is in the manner of Dutch Delftware and indeed is frequently wrongly identified as such. Decoration is mainly blue on a white ground, inspired by decoration on Chinese export porcelain, landscapes and figure subjects. Chinese-inspired themes carry on throughout the golden age of German faience in the 18th century, although local themes do sometimes appear. One of the most popular was songbirds among scattered foliage and flowers.
A small proportion of the late 17th- and early 18th-century faience is painted in manganese and yellow as well as blue. Although petit-feu (low-fired) enamelling was developed here at least as early as the 1680s it is
scarce and therefore. As well as plain contoured dishes and hollow-wares the potters made lobed wares – both deep dishes, often with 30 or more lobes, and Enghalskrugen (narrow-necked jugs).
AFTER 1700
In the 18th century a large number of potteries were established; apart from Hanover (1732) these were principally in the southern and central regions, including Ansbach (1708), Nuremberg ( 1712), Bayreuth (1719), Brunswick (1719), Fulda (1741), Hochst ( 1746), and Crailsheim ( 1749). After 1700 the decorators’ repertory included a continuation of their love affair with Chinese ornament – although now in a much-debased form. However, as the century developed, the Chinese designs were gradually replaced by a more native style. Among the most popular themes were birds and foliage, naively painted buildings, figures, landscapes, chinoiserie riverscapes, the double-headed eagle, and coats of arms. Decoration was executed in both the high-fired palette (blue, yellow, and red against a speckled manganese ground) and low-fired enamels.
A considerable portion of the surviving output is the Walzenkrug (cylindrical tankard), one of the most characteristic forms of German faience. Also popular were Enghalskrugen, dishes, tureens in the form of animals, birds, or vegetables, plates, salts, inkwells, and vases (sometimes in garnitures, or sets). Figures were made by some manufacturers, the majority from the north of the region, such as Brunswick and Munden. Although competition from English creamware (cream-coloured earthenware) forced many of the factories to close at the end of the 18th century, some factories actories continued into the 19th century. The potteries in Kellinghusen established in the 18th century made good-quality peasant-style wares decorated in high-temperature colours with bold flowers; one factory continued until -.1860.
• FORMS multi-lobed dishes and hollow-wares, WaIzenkrugen and narrow-necked jugs; figures are rare
• DI CIO RATION based on Chinese wares; from -.1750 replaced by a more native style
• COPIES in the late 19th and early 20th century, copies of the more exotic petit-feu enamelled wares were made; 18th-century wares tend to have a pinkish took where the glaze is thin – most evident on the base
• BASES 18th-century wares, particularly from south ave a s -called “thumb print” on the base,
Germany,have so-calle
when the item was removed with a string from the wheel; these do not appear on 19th-century wares
Marks
Marked examples are rare before c.1700; a considerable number of faience makers used factory marks, but not on every piece
Bayreuth: this is the mark for Johann Georg Pfeiffer, owner between 1760 and 1767Hanau
: mark used between 1661 and 1806
k Dish from Nuremberg
This is a typical example of Nuremberg faience, complex in form and decoration. The finely fluted or ribbed form is washed in pale blue and then painted in greyish cobalt with a highly formalized design - a jardiniere charged with flowers enclosed within a corona of demi-lune panels and a rim of stylized Oriental flower-heads and floral cartouches. This entire arrangement is a fairly stiff descendant of the Rouen or Delft motifs that were dominant at the turn of the 17th century.