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GERMAN, DUTCH AND SCANDINAVIAN

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Originally appearing in Volume V05, Page 741 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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GERMAN, DUTCH AND SCANDINAVIAN POTTERY In See also:northern See also:Europe until the See also:time of the See also:Renaissance the making of tiles is the only See also:branch of the See also:potter's See also:craft of See also:artistic See also:rank. The See also:pavement tiles of See also:Germany of the See also:Gothic See also:period,examples of which have been found in the valley of the See also:Rhine from See also:Constance to See also:Cologne, often See also:bear designs of foliage or See also:grotesque animals full of See also:character and spirit. Their decoration is effected either by impression with a See also:stamp of See also:wood or See also:clay, or by " pressing " the See also:tile in a See also:mould to produce a See also:design in See also:relief. The See also:surface is sometimes protected by a See also:lead glaze—green, See also:brown or yellow—but is generally See also:left unglazed. Glazed tiles with relief See also:ornament were also made as See also:early as the 14th See also:century for the construction of stoves, such as have continued in use in Germany to the See also:present See also:day. About 1500 a development took See also:place in the See also:combination of glazes of different See also:colours on a single tile. In the See also:middle of the 16th century Renaissance ornament appears in place of Gothic canopies and See also:tracery, and See also:blue and See also:white enamels begin to be used in combination with lead glazes of other colours. Figures in the See also:costume of the period, or See also:shields of arms, in See also:round-arched niches are a favourite See also:motive alike in the See also:stove tiles and in the wares of similar technique known as Hafnergefasse, which have been wrongly attributed to Hirsvogel of See also:Nuremberg. These were made not only in that See also:city but also in See also:Silesia and at See also:Salzburg, See also:Steyr, and elsewhere in Upper See also:Austria; their manufacture continued into the 18th century. Imitations of See also:Italian See also:majolica with polychrome See also:painting on a white enamelled ground were first made in See also:southern Germany about 1525, and it is with these wares that the name of Hirsvogel should really be associated. The same See also:style survived for more than a century and a See also:half in the stoves and pottery made by the Pfau See also:family at See also:Winterthur in See also:Switzerland, from the end of the 16th century onwards. An interesting development is exhibited by certain rare productions, of Silesian origin, dating from about 1550, with decorations in coloured enamels which are prevented from flowing together by a strong outline incised in the clay.

Stoneware.—The most important feature of the See also:

history of German pottery is the development of stoneware along the valley of the Rhine. This See also:ware is of a highly refractory white or See also:grey See also:body of intense hardness, glazed by the introduction of See also:salt into the See also:kiln when the highest temperature was reached. It was exported in large quantities through the markets of Cologne and Aachen (See also:Aix-la-Chapelle) to See also:England, See also:France and other parts of northern Europe. The frequent occurrence in its decoration of the arms of See also:foreign cities and princes shows that the German potters were alive to the requirements of foreign customers. The See also:oldest centre of this manufacture seems to have been at See also:Siegburg near See also:Coblenz, where the white stoneware See also:peculiar to the neighbourhood, made from See also:local clay, must have been made and exported in considerable quantities at least as early as the 15th century; See also:plain See also:beer-jugs of that date with cylindrical See also:neck and slightly swelling body have been unearthed in See also:London and the eastern counties of England. In the 16th century an artistic development took place, and the potters were formed into an exclusive gild under stringent regulations. The manufacture lasted till the See also:sack of the See also:town by the Swedes in 1632, subsequent attempts to re-establish it being unsuccessful. This ware, of a creamy white See also:colour, generally thinly glazed and only rarely coloured by staining with See also:cobalt blue, is decorated by impression with small stamps or by the application of reliefs pressed from See also:separate moulds. The motives include sacred and classical figure subjects, portraits of contemporary sovereigns, and armorial See also:bearings, with See also:accessory foliage in which a survival of Gothic feeling is often perceptible. Characteristic forms are the high See also:tankard (Schnelle) and the ewer with See also:long spout (Schnabelkrug), but the See also:fancy of the potter also found expression in various See also:quaint or extravagant forms. At Raeren in the duchy of See also:Limburg this See also:industry attained importance about 155o, and was continued for over seventy years; 153g is the earliest date known to occur on this ware. The pieces were of two kinds, brown-glazed and grey; the latter usually decorated with blue.

The favourite See also:

form is a See also:baluster-shaped See also:jug with heraldic designs or a See also:frieze of figures round the middle. The subjects are from Scripture history or contemporary See also:peasant See also:life as interpreted by Hans Sebald Beham and the German and See also:French " Little Masters." Examples are known bearing See also:dates and names or See also:initials of mould-cutters, among them Ian Emens and Baldem Mennicken; but it must not always be inferred that a piece is as old as the date introduced in its decoration, for the same set of moulds might be used for many years. Another important centre in the 16th century was at Frechen near Cologne. Round-bellied jugs known as Bartmdnner, from the bearded See also:mask applied in front of the neck, covered with a brown glaze, which in later examples is often coagulated into thick spots, were first made here towards the end of the 15th century, and continued to be the See also:staple product well into the 17th. The jugs of this type, known as Greybeards or Bellarmines, which were exported in profusion to England, Scandinavia and the See also:Low Countries, were mostly made here. At Cologne itself there were also factories, probably before the 16th century, the later productions of which resemble those of Frechen. During the 17th and 18th centuries the busiest stoneware centre was the See also:district surrounding Hohr-Grenzhausen in See also:Nassau known as the Kannebackerlandchen, where artistic ware was being made before 1600. Soon after that date See also:manganese See also:purple was first used in the decoration in addition to cobalt blue, and henceforward colour in combination with impressed and incised ornament tended more and more to supersede decoration in relief. Figure subjects gave place to rosettes, foliage on wavy stems, and geometrical patterns. Vessels of large See also:size and fantastic shape appear beside the See also:standard forms of the earlier factories. In the 18th century the forms of beer-vessels became stereotyped in the globular jug with cylindrical neck and the cylindrical tankard, while See also:tea and See also:coffee pots, inkstands and other vessels, hitherto unknown, began to be made. A stoneware manufacture dating back to the middle ages existed at Creussen in See also:Bavaria.

The productions of this district during the 17th and 18th centuries consist of tankards of squat shape, jugs and jars, of a dark red body, covered with a lustrous dark brown glaze, frequently painted after the first firing in brilliant See also:

enamel colours with figures of the Apostles, the See also:electors of the See also:Empire, or other oft-repeated motives. Imitations of the wares of Raeren and Grenzhausen were made at Bouffioulx near See also:Charleroi; other See also:minor centres of the manufacture were at Meckenheim near Cologne and See also:Bunzlau in Silesia. As in England, so in See also:Holland (by Ary de Milde and certain See also:Delft potters) and in Germany, attempts were made with some success, early in the 18th century, to imitate the See also:Chinese red stoneware, known as boccaros. The early efforts of Bottger, the discoverer of the See also:secret of true See also:porcelain, at See also:Meissen, belong to this See also:category. His red ware is of such hardness that it was cut and polished on the See also:lapidary's See also:wheel. For some time after the manufacture of red ware at Meissen had ceased, a glazed brown ware of less hard body with gilt or See also:silver decoration was made at See also:Bayreuth. The products of other minor factories of this class cannot now be identified. Mention may be made of the lead-glazed peasant pottery, such as the See also:bowls produced at See also:Marburg with quaint symbolical devices modelled in relief and applied. Slip-covered wares with See also:graffito decoration, apparently of indigenous growth and not inspired by foreign examples, were made well on into the 19th century near See also:Crefeld and elsewhere in Germany, at Langnau in Switzerland, and by German emigrants in See also:Pennsylvania. In Holland a peculiar See also:green-glazed ware was made in the 18th century with pierced geometrical decoration recalling the Dutch carved woodwork of the period. Delft.—One of the most remarkable phenomena in the history of pottery is the See also:appearance about 1600, in a highly See also:developed See also:state, of the manufacture of a See also:tin-enamelled earthenware at Delft. It was introduced in that town by Herman Pietersz of See also:Haarlem, but whence he learned his See also:art is unknown.

The See also:

faience-makers (plateelbackers) were one of the eight crafts of Delft which formed the Gild of St See also:Luke founded in 1611. About 165o a See also:great development took place, and till the latter years of the 18th century, when its faience was ousted by the moreserviceable wares of the See also:English See also:potteries, Delft remained the most important centre of ceramic industry in northern Europe. The ware is of See also:fine See also:buff-coloured clay, dipped after the first firing in a white tin-enamel, which formed the ground for painted decoration; after painting, this was covered with a transparent lead glaze and fired a second time, so that in its technique it belongs to the same class as the painted Italian majolica and the old French faience. At its best it is rightly ranked among the greatest achievements of the potter's art. Characteristic of the first period are dishes and plaques in blue monochrome with somewhat overcrowded scenes of popular life in the style of the engravings of See also:Goltzius. Imitations of the See also:oriental porcelain imported by the Dutch See also:East See also:India See also:Company were introduced about 165o by Aelbregt de Keizer and continued for some time among the finest productions. At the same time the earlier tradition was developed in the finely painted landscapes and portraits of See also:Abraham de Kooge and See also:Frederick See also:van Frytom. Other potters of the best period were Lambartus van Eenhorn and Louwys Fictoor, makers of the large reeded vases with Chinese floral designs in polychrome, Augestyn Reygens, Adriaen Pynacker, and See also:Lucas van See also:Dale; to the last are attributed the pieces with yellow decoration on an See also:olive-green enamel ground. The rare examples with poly-chrome decoration on a See also:black ground in See also:imitation of Chinese See also:lacquer are the See also:work of Fictoor and Pynacker. With the 18th century came a largely increased demand and a consequent deterioration in artistic quality. The rise of the German porcelain factories had its effect in the introduction of overglaze painting fired in a muffle kiln, typified by the work of the Dextras, See also:father and son. This innovation, by which the Delft potters attempted to compete with See also:European porcelain, contributed to the ruin of their art by eliminating the skilled See also:touch required for painting on the unfired enamel.

The ware frequently, but not invariably, bears a See also:

mark derived from the sign of the factory (the See also:rose, the See also:peacock, the three bells, &c.), or the name or initials of its proprietor. A small faience factory was started by See also:Jan van Kerkhoff about 1755 at See also:Arnhem; its productions were of See also:good quality, chiefly in the See also:rococo style, marked with a See also:cock. The exportation of the Delft ware to Germany occasioned the rise of numerous factories in that See also:country for making faience in imitation of the Dutch. Among these may be named See also:Hanau (founded about 1670), See also:Frankfort and See also:Cassel. Others, such as See also:Kiel and See also:Stralsund, See also:drew their See also:inspiration from the productions of See also:Marseilles and See also:Strassburg (q.v.). At Nuremberg a factory was founded in 1712, which was but little affected by extraneous influences; among its characteristic productions are dishes with sunk decoration in the form of a See also:star, and jugs with long necks and See also:pear-shaped bodies, often spirally fluted. Similar wares were made at Bayreuth. The Dutch and French styles were carried by German potters into Scandinavia; factories were established at See also:Copenhagen in 1722, at Rorstrand and Marieberg near See also:Stockholm in 1728 and 1758, and at Herreb4e in See also:Norway about 1759. At the See also:close of the 18th century the See also:influence of imported English earthenware was strongly See also:felt. In Holland workshops were established for painting the English cream-coloured ware with subjects suited to the Dutch See also:taste; and in Germany cream-coloured wares and steingut in imitation of See also:Wedgwood's productions were manufactured at Cassel, Proskau and else-where. The " Delft " ware of Holland during the 17th century was a beautiful decorative ware, in which the Dutch painters caught successfully the spirit, and often the very colour value, of Chinese blue and white porcelain. Its fame spread over the whole of Europe, and its styles were readily imitated by the potters of all other countries who made a similar ware.

Even the polychrome Delft, though not nearly so beautiful as the " blue and white," is strongly decorative, and one See also:

sees in the Polychrome faience of northern France and of Germany more than a trace of its influence. When this ware was supplanted by English earthenware it was a clear instance of a ware that was technically See also:superior displacing a more artistic product. Collections.—For German wares the German museums are naturally best, The museums at See also:Munich and Nuremberg contain splendid collections of the tin-enamelled and peasant wares of See also:South Germany. Cologne has a wonderful collection of the Rhenish stoneware, and See also:Berlin and See also:Hamburg have good See also:general collections. Copenhagen and Stockholm are especially good for Scandinavian wares, and See also:Zurich for Swiss. There are also good collections of German See also:stone-ware in the See also:Victoria and See also:Albert and the See also:British museums, and in the See also:Cluny Museum, the Louvre, and the museum at Sevres; but there are no notable collections of the German tin-enamelled wares out of Germany. The wares of Delft may be best studied in the museums at the See also:Hague and See also:Amsterdam. There is an interesting collection at the factory of Thooft and Labouchere in Delft. The See also:principal museums in England, France and Germany all have See also:fair to good collections of this renowned ware.

End of Article: GERMAN, DUTCH AND SCANDINAVIAN

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