In northern Europe until the time of the Renaissance the making of tiles
is the only branch of the potter's craft of artistic rank. The pavement
tiles of Germany of the Gothic period, examples of which have been
found in the valley of the Rhine from Constance to Cologne, often bear
designs of foliage or grotesque animals full of character and spirit.
Their decoration is effected either by impression with a stamp of wood
or clay, or by "pressing" the tile in a mould to produce a design in
relief. The surface is sometimes protected by a lead glaze--green, brown
or yellow--but is generally left unglazed.
Glazed tiles with relief ornament were also made as early as the 14th
century for the construction of stoves, such as have continued in use in
Germany to the present day. About 1500 a development took place in the
combination of glazes of different colours on a single tile. In the
middle of the 16th century Renaissance ornament appears in place of
Gothic canopies and tracery, and blue and white enamels begin to be used
in combination with lead glazes of other colours. Figures in the costume
of the period, or shields of arms, in round-arched niches are a
favourite motive alike in the stove tiles and in the wares of similar
technique known as _Hafnergefässe_, which have been wrongly attributed
to Hirsvogel of Nuremberg. These were made not only in that city but
also in Silesia and at Salzburg, Steyr, and elsewhere in Upper Austria;
their manufacture continued into the 18th century.
Imitations of Italian majolica with polychrome painting on a white
enamelled ground were first made in southern Germany about 1525, and it
is with these wares that the name of Hirsvogel should really be
associated. The same style survived for more than a century and a half
in the stoves and pottery made by the Pfau family at Winterthur in
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 history of German
pottery is the development of stoneware along the valley of the Rhine.
This ware is of a highly refractory white or grey body of intense
hardness, glazed by the introduction of salt into the kiln when the
highest temperature was reached. It was exported in large quantities
through the markets of Cologne and Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) to England,
France and other parts of northern Europe. The frequent occurrence in
its decoration of the arms of foreign cities and princes shows that the
German potters were alive to the requirements of foreign customers.
The oldest centre of this manufacture seems to have been at Siegburg
near Coblenz, where the white stoneware peculiar to the neighbourhood,
made from local clay, must have been made and exported in considerable
quantities at least as early as the 15th century; plain beer-jugs of
that date with cylindrical neck and slightly swelling body have been
unearthed in 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 sack of the town by the Swedes in 1632, subsequent
attempts to re-establish it being unsuccessful. This ware, of a creamy
white colour, generally thinly glazed and only rarely coloured by
staining with cobalt blue, is decorated by impression with small stamps
or by the application of reliefs pressed from separate moulds. The
motives include sacred and classical figure subjects, portraits of
contemporary sovereigns, and armorial bearings, with accessory foliage
in which a survival of Gothic feeling is often perceptible.
Characteristic forms are the high tankard (_Schnelle_) and the ewer with
long spout (_Schnabelkrug_), but the fancy of the potter also found
expression in various quaint or extravagant forms.
At Raeren in the duchy of Limburg this industry attained importance
about 1550, and was continued for over seventy years; 1539 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 form is a baluster-shaped jug with heraldic designs or a
frieze of figures round the middle. The subjects are from Scripture
history or contemporary peasant life as interpreted by Hans Sebald Beham
and the German and French "Little Masters." Examples are known bearing
dates and names or 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 _Bartmänner_, from the bearded 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 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 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
district surrounding Höhr-Grenzhausen in Nassau known as the
Kannebäckerländchen, where artistic ware was being made before 1600.
Soon after that date manganese 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 size and
fantastic shape appear beside the 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 tea and 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 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 enamel colours with figures of the Apostles, the
electors of the Empire, or other oft-repeated motives. Imitations of the
wares of Raeren and Grenzhausen were made at Bouffioulx near Charleroi;
other minor centres of the manufacture were at Meckenheim near Cologne
and Bunzlau in Silesia.
As in England, so in Holland (by Ary de Milde and certain Delft potters)
and in Germany, attempts were made with some success, early in the 18th
century, to imitate the Chinese red stoneware, known as _boccaros_. The
early efforts of Böttger, the discoverer of the secret of true
porcelain, at Meissen, belong to this category. His red ware is of such
hardness that it was cut and polished on the lapidary's 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 silver decoration was made at
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
bowls produced at Marburg with quaint symbolical devices modelled in
relief and applied. Slip-covered wares with _graffiato_ decoration,
apparently of indigenous growth and not inspired by foreign examples,
were made well on into the 19th century near Crefeld and elsewhere in
Germany, at Langnau in Switzerland, and by German emigrants in
Pennsylvania. In Holland a peculiar 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 appearance about 1600, in a highly developed state, of the
manufacture of a tin-enamelled earthenware at Delft. It was introduced
in that town by Herman Pietersz of Haarlem, but whence he learned his
art is unknown. The faience-makers (_plateelbackers_) were one of the
eight crafts of Delft which formed the Gild of St Luke founded in 1611.
About 1650 a great development took place, and till the latter years of
the 18th century, when its faience was ousted by the more serviceable
wares of the English potteries, Delft remained the most important centre
of ceramic industry in northern Europe. The ware is of fine
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 Goltzius. Imitations of the oriental porcelain
imported by the Dutch East India Company were introduced about 1650 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 Abraham de Kooge and
Frederick 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 Lucas van Dale; to the last are attributed the pieces with
yellow decoration on an olive-green enamel ground. The rare examples
with polychrome decoration on a black ground in imitation of Chinese
lacquer are the 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, father and son. This innovation, by which
the Delft potters attempted to compete with European porcelain,
contributed to the ruin of their art by eliminating the skilled touch
required for painting on the unfired enamel. The ware frequently, but
not invariably, bears a mark derived from the sign of the factory (the
rose, the peacock, the three bells, &c.), or the name or initials of its
proprietor.
A small faience factory was started by Jan van Kerkhoff about 1755 at
Arnhem; its productions were of good quality, chiefly in the rococo
style, marked with a cock.
The exportation of the Delft ware to Germany occasioned the rise of
numerous factories in that country for making faience in imitation of
the Dutch. Among these may be named Hanau (founded about 1670),
Frankfort and Cassel. Others, such as Kiel and Stralsund, drew their
inspiration from the productions of Marseilles and 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 star, and jugs with long
necks and 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 Copenhagen in
1722, at Rörstrand and Marieberg near Stockholm in 1728 and 1758, and at
Herrebøe in Norway about 1759.
At the close of the 18th century the influence of imported English
earthenware was strongly felt. In Holland workshops were established for
painting the English cream-coloured ware with subjects suited to the
Dutch taste; and in Germany cream-coloured wares and _steingut_ in
imitation of Wedgwood's productions were manufactured at Cassel, Proskau
and elsewhere. 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 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
superior displacing a more artistic product.
[Illustration: PLATE VI.
Calaggiolo: 16th century.
Faenza. Casa Pirota, 1525.
Urbino. Decorated by Orario Fontana.
Urbino. 1525 (?). A plate of the famous Gonzaga Este service.