Germany
The pottery of Germany consists of two distinct classes: the fayence with opaque white stanniferous glaze, and that which to a great extent is called in England stoneware, in Germany Steingut, and in France grès or sandstone. These epithets exactly describe the quality of the latter ware. It is very serviceable for domestic utensils, such as drinking bottles and vessels of everyday use, and is covered with a thin transparent glaze, effected by throwing common salt into the kiln when the ware is nearly baked—the salt vaporised by the heat surrounds the vessels, and acting upon the silica of their surfaces produces a thin gloss of silicate of soda over the ware, rendering it perfectly impervious.
Nuremberg (Nürnberg). The celebrated Veit Hirschvogel, of Schlettstadt, was born in 1441, and died in 1525; he was a great potter, contemporary with Luca della Robbia, of Florence. The early pieces of pottery are somewhat like maiolica, but the colours are brighter, green predominating in many specimens; figures in relief in niches are frequently seen on vases. Several chimney-pieces of this ware of the 15th century are still in existence, one is in the castle of Salzburg, and many pieces treasured up in museums are supposed to have been made by Hirschvogel himself. The Nuremberg pottery of the 16th and 17th centuries is not uncommon. Hirschvogel was succeeded by his sons and a host of continuators. Fayence of the 18th century is also met with, painted with scriptural subjects, sometimes in blue camaïeu, sometimes in other colours.
Fig. 86. Jug, of enamelled earthenware, in various colours, with figures in low relief; attributed to Veit Hirschvogel; height 13 in.
Fig. 87. Dish, painted in the centre with Christ rising from the tomb; signed with the painter’s name Glüer, 1723.
Leipzig. In the convent of St. Paul, which was built in 1207, there was a frieze of bricks, covered with tin enamel glaze, representing in relief the heads of Saints and Apostles, 20 in. by 15 in., 2½ in. thick. On the demolition of the convent a selection of these was deposited in the Dresden Museum; they are of Byzantine character, in green enamel shaded with black; the hair, beard, and eyes of the figures are coloured.
Strehla. A manufactory for earthenware was in existence here for many centuries. A pulpit of enamelled earthenware still exists, supported by a life-size figure of Moses, ornamented with eight plaques of religious subjects and figures of the four Evangelists, bearing the name of the potter and the date 1565.
Oberdorf. A factory was carried on by a potter named Hans Seltzman; a very fine stove made by him, with an inscription and dated 1514, is in the Palace at Füssen, in Bavaria. Many other places throughout Germany were equally famous in the 16th and 17th centuries, for the manufacture of stoves, as Augsburg, Memmingen, &c.
Bayreuth. The manufacture of a brown stoneware with Renaissance medallions, arabesques, &c., in relief flourished here in the 16th century. At a later period, fine fayence was produced, painted in blue camaïeu. The designs are delicately traced with a brush on a fine paste; the forms are canettes, jardinières, &c. At the end of the 18th century a fabrique of fayence was carried on by a Herr Schmidt, who assiduously copied the English ware; there are specimens in the Sèvres Museum bearing the counterfeit mark of “Wedgwood.”
Fig. 88. Coffee-pot and cover, chocolate coloured ground, decorated with gilt scrolls; F, the cypher of Frederick the Great, under a crown in front; about the middle of the 18th century; height 9 in.
Cologne (Köln). The stoneware made here in the 16th century is better known throughout Europe than any other description of pottery; its durability for domestic uses and the elegant character of its ornamentation in relief, caused it to be sought for everywhere. The grès de Cologne has been confounded with the grès de Flandres, which latter name is given erroneously and indiscriminately to all stoneware of German manufacture, notwithstanding the German inscriptions the pieces bear and the arms of German cities and families. The best and most highly finished decorative grès or stoneware cruches were undoubtedly made in Germany, if not at Cologne. The clay for making the Cologne ware came from Langerwehe between Düren and Aix-la-Chapelle. The manufactory was not actually in Cologne, but in the vicinity, possibly at Frechen, and at Lauenstein, where a factory was established in the 18th century.
There were also factories at Siegburg and Limburg.
All the ware was made in moulds, and it must be borne in mind that the vessels were not always made at the date indicated upon them, for the moulds were used successively through a series of years, and it is no uncommon occurrence to find two different dates upon the same piece. Some of the finest specimens known bear the name of Baldem Mennicken, a potter dwelling at Raeren in the ancient Duchy of Limburg, which town until the treaty of 1814 was part of Holland, and it is probable that the stoneware produced here indicates the origin of grès de Flandres.
Grenzhausen, in Nassau. There was a factory here about 1780, where grès or stoneware was made; it is of a fine quality and easily mistaken for the more ancient grès. The forms are usually plates, dishes, and jugs, in which the decoration consists of a fine blue enamel on grey ground, with incuse ornaments executed by hand.
Fig. 92, a jug of reticulated pattern, is engine-turned, and enriched with brilliant enamel colours, 18th century.
Fig. 93, a large fountain, is purple blue and white, 16th century; height 30 in.
Kreussen, a town of Bavaria, has long been noted for its pottery. The grès of the 17th century, called Kreussener Steingut, is of a dark brown colour, in the forms of cylindrical mugs, tankards, &c., with figures in relief round them, painted in bright coloured enamel.
Fig. 94, a tankard, has a chocolate-coloured ground, with coloured enamel ornaments and figures of the Emperor and the Electors of Germany on horseback, dated 1696.
Bunzlau, in Silesia. Grès was made here in the 16th and 17th centuries. The products of the 18th century are distinguished by ornaments in relief, flowers, coats of arms, &c., sometimes gilt. At the present time an extensive trade is still carried on in the manufacture of chocolate and coffee pots, usually covered with a brown glaze, and lined with white. There is preserved a monster coffee-pot, 15 feet high, made at this place in the 18th century.
Harburg, on the Elbe, opposite Hamburg, is noted as the residence of Johann Schaper, who was born towards the end of the 16th century. His exquisite paintings of landscapes and figures are usually in Indian ink or sepia en grisaille, the colours being fixed by heat.
Fig. 95, a cruche of fine fayence, painted with a landscape in grey camaïeu, is signed “Joh. Schaper”; it has a white ground with flowers and fruit in natural colours; date about 1640; height 8½ in.
Scherzheim, in Würtemberg. The Wintergursts, father and son, were celebrated potters here, and made fayence from the beginning of the 17th century; it is from their manufactory that the table services, of which each piece represents an animal or a vegetable, were made.
Lauenstein, near Coblenz. A manufactory was established in 1760; the grès or stoneware made here was of grey and blue, ornamented with incuse patterns; it was made in large quantities, and carried by the Rhine boats to the markets in Holland, where it met with a ready sale.
Höchst, near Mainz. Enamelled fayence was made here in the beginning of the 18th century, at a factory founded by Gelz of Frankfort. The manufactory ceased in 1794, but a potter named Dahl established one in the vicinity. He made statuettes and other ornaments.
Dresden. A manufactory was established at Meissen, on the Elbe, about 12 miles from Dresden, by Augustus II., King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, for the manufacture of hard paste, or true porcelain. The experiments of Tschirnhaus and Böttcher commenced about 1706; to the latter is attributed the invention of hard paste. His first attempt produced a red ware, like jasper, which was cut and polished by the lapidary and gilt by the goldsmith. It was made from a kind of brown clay found at Meissen. This red ware, made by Böttcher, was a fine stoneware, having opacity, grain, and toughness.
Another kind of pottery was made at the beginning of the 18th century, in imitation of the Japanese; it was called the red pottery of Dresden.
Teinitz (Bohemia). A manufactory was carried on in this small town in the 18th century by a potter named Welby.
Fig. 97. A plate painted in bistre camaïeu with the Discovery of Calisto by Diana. It has an elegant border in grey, with richly gilt designs, resembling the gilding of Vienna. Date about 1800.
Frankenthal. Paul Hannong, driven from Strassburg in 1753, in consequence of the Vincennes monopoly, founded a manufactory here in the following year for hard paste porcelain; he also made great quantities of fayence, usually decorated with flowers, as at Strassburg. It was called “Poterie du Rhin.”
Arnstadt (Gotha). A factory was established here about the middle of the 18th century. A fayence jug, painted in blue camaïeu, with St. George and the Dragon, coloured flowers on the sides, and a purple and green check border, is in the British Museum.
Kiel was noted for its fayence about 1770; the factory was under the direction of J. Buchwald, who had been master potter at Marieberg, 1761 to 1765; a few years after, probably in 1767 or 1768, he became director of the Kiel manufactory. The paintings of landscapes and flowers in colours are well finished.