The Collector's Handbook to Keramics of the Renaissance and Modern Periods Part 6

KREUSSEN, a town of Bavaria, has long been noted for its pottery. The _gres_ 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 94.--TANKARD.]

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. _Gres_ 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 95.--CRUCHE.]

Fig. 95, a cruche of fine fayence, painted with a landscape in grey _camaeu_, is signed "_Joh. Schaper_"; it has a white ground with flowers and fruit in natural colours; date about 1640; height 8-1/2 in.

SCHERZHEIM, in Wurtemberg. 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 _gres_ or stoneware made here was of grey and blue, ornamented with incuse patterns; it was made in large quant.i.ties, and carried by the Rhine boats to the markets in Holland, where it met with a ready sale.

HoCHST, 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 Bottcher 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 Bottcher, was a fine stoneware, having opacity, grain, and toughness.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 96.--BoTTCHER COFFEE-POT.]

Another kind of pottery was made at the beginning of the 18th century, in imitation of the j.a.panese; 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG 97.--PLATE.]

Fig. 97. A plate painted in bistre _camaeu_ with the Discovery of Calis...o...b.. 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 Stra.s.sburg in 1753, in consequence of the Vincennes monopoly, founded a manufactory here in the following year for hard paste porcelain; he also made great quant.i.ties of fayence, usually decorated with flowers, as at Stra.s.sburg. 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 _camaeu_, 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.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 98.--BISHOP'S MITRE BOWL.]

HOLLAND AND LUXEMBURG

HOLLAND

Delft, a town between the Hague and Rotterdam, was celebrated for its earthenware at a very early period. The exact date of its commencement is not known, but there is a record of a certain Herman Pietersz, a fayence maker, being married in 1584, consequently pottery was being made in the town towards the end of the 16th century. At this period the decorated Dutch pottery showed Italian influence in its design, and it is recorded that a painter on pottery named Vroom studied his art in Italy.

After the middle of the 17th century the industry increased rapidly, and reached its greatest prosperity about 1680, when there were about thirty different factories, and the ware was decorated by highly skilled artists. No one was allowed to establish a factory unless he had obtained a licence from the Guild of S{t}. Luc.

To this period belong famous potters, such as P. J. Van Kessel of "The Metal Pot"; Abram de Kooge of "The Old Moor's Head," who decorated landscapes in blue _camaeu_; and Albrecht de Keizer, with his two sons-in-law, Jacob and Adrian Pynaker, of "The Three Porcelain Bottles," who were the first to imitate oriental porcelain. Other potters of note at this time were the Eenhorns, father and two sons, the Kleftyns, and the five Kams.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 99.--CRUCHE.]

By the middle of the 18th century, owing to the compet.i.tion of English pottery, the Delft industry was already on the wane. In 1780 the factories were reduced to one half their former number, and by 1808 only seven existed. All these gradually succ.u.mbed, and now only one factory, "The Old Porcelain Bottle," remains.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 100.--TEAPOT.]

The forms of the Delft ware are very varied; among other curious efforts the potters produced musical instruments. There are four fayence violins extant, all painted in blue _camaeu_, with figures in Dutch costume of the 17th century, dancing and singing, musicians and kermess scenes, in the manner of Gerard Lairesse, with cupids and Renaissance ornaments as borders.

The decorated pieces of Ter Himpelen, although rarely signed, are much prized; he painted fairs and marine subjects on square plaques, about the year 1650. So also are those of Piet Viseer, a celebrated colourist, who flourished about 1750; and of Van Domelaar, who painted Chinese landscapes, &c., about 1580.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 101.--VASE.]

Fig. 99, a cruche, is painted in blue _camaeu_, with a musical party, in the costume of about 1670.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 102.--PLATE.]

Fig. 100, a teapot, is painted in polychrome with Chinese landscapes and flowers on a black ground. It has the mark of Louwys Fictoor. Late 17th or early 18th century.

Fig. 101, a vase, is painted in blue with flowers, in imitation of a Chinese type. The mark of Ghisbrecht Lambrechtse Kruyk. Later half of 17th century.

Fig. 102, a plate painted with figures in blue, is one of a set of twelve representing the tobacco industry.

UTRECHT. There was a manufactory of tiles here, founded in 1760; they were decorated in blue or violet, _en camaeu_, in imitation of Delft; the manufactory was closed in 1855.

AMSTERDAM. A German Jew of Breslau, named Hartog, known as Hartog Van Laun, and another, named Brandeis, established a manufactory of fayence near the gate of Weesp, at Amsterdam. The ware is heavy, not very artistic, and usually in blue _camaeu_. Fig. 103, a fruit dish, is painted in blue, with a man and woman seated.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 103.--DISH.]

OVERTOOM. A manufactory of fine fayence was established in 1754, in the parish of Amstelveen, near Amsterdam; it lasted ten years. The Barons Van Haeren and Van Palland were the proprietors, and Ariel Blankers was the director. The fayence, though heavy, was of a fine white enamel and of good forms; besides table and tea services, groups of birds, modelled from nature, statuettes, &c., were made.

LUXEMBURG

An important _fabrique_ was established at Luxemburg by the brothers Boch, in 1767, who had removed from Audun le Riche in France. They made various descriptions of earthenware, as well as fine fayence, and largely imitated the English Queen's ware.

RUSSIA AND SWEDEN

RUSSIA

ST. PETERSBURG. About the year 1700, Peter the Great, during his stay at Saardam, induced some potters of Delft to emigrate to St. Petersburg, where he established a manufactory. We have no information on the subject, except a notice of it in the "_Connaissances Politiques_," of Beausobre, published at Riga in 1773: "There is also among the porcelain manufactories at St. Petersburg a _fabrique_ of fayence, on the other side of the Neva, where they make every description of vessels of correct design and in good taste. A private gentleman of Revel has also established at his own cost, near this city, a _fabrique_ of fayence, and has obtained painters and potters from Germany."

SWEDEN

RoRSTRAND, a suburb of Stockholm, where a factory for earthenware was established in 1726. The works were at first under the direction of Jean Wolf. He was succeeded by C. C. Hunger. In 1772 they were managed by Nordenstople, and later by Geyer.

[Ill.u.s.tration: FIG. 104.--b.u.t.tERBOAT.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARIEBERG