On Saturday, 15 November, at 4:00 p.m., the opening of the exhibition “Bolesławiec Artistic Ceramics in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Selected Types of Decoration in Polish, Czech and German Collections” will take place at the Bolesławiec Museum of Ceramics at 14 Kutuzowa Street. The exhibition will feature ribbed jugs known as “melons” and brown-glazed vessels decorated with applied relief elements. Apart from stamp-decorated ceramics, this is the group of products most characteristic of Bolesławiec.
Twenty-three museums from Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany and even Australia, as well as private collectors, contributed to this international project. During many months of work, the museum specialists from Bolesławiec examined more than 650 objects, which will be presented at the exhibition.
Such a large number of exhibits makes it possible to show the diversity of forms and the wealth of decorative motifs found in 18th- and 19th-century ceramics. The first group consists of vessels whose bodies are decorated with diagonal ribbing, including jugs covered with green glaze in various shades. The second group comprises products decorated with applied relief elements. Depending on when they were made, they differ in form and decoration. The most numerous are jugs intended for mounting and the famous Bolesławiec coffee pots. A smaller group consists of single-handled pots.
Several main groups can be distinguished among the decorative motifs: religious, heraldic, mythological, genre, symbolic and floral decorations. Of particular interest are vessels bearing the coat of arms of the Bolesławiec potters’ guild (Adam and Eve beneath the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil growing from a pot on a potter’s wheel) and vessels with Masonic symbols. Some vessels were additionally covered with painted decoration. Only a small number are decorated exclusively in this way, and just two objects are decorated with inlay.
Particularly striking against this background are the 19th-century vessels made according to designs by C.D.F. Bach at the E.S. Gotthard factory in Bolesławiec, as well as products from J.G. Altmann’s pottery, awarded a gold medal at the First World’s Fair in London in 1851. They are characterized by extraordinary delicacy, close to porcelain, elegant forms and refined decoration. Many of the objects will be presented at the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec for the first time.
The exhibition is accompanied by a trilingual (Polish-Czech-German), richly illustrated catalogue of more than 350 pages, which also includes a scholarly study of the subject presented. It is the most comprehensive study to date of Polish, Czech and German collections of 18th- and 19th-century Bolesławiec artistic ceramics.
“Bolesławiec Artistic Ceramics in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Selected Types of Decoration in Polish, Czech and German Collections” is one of the largest and most important recent projects devoted to ceramics. It was carried out by employees of the Museum of Ceramics and continues earlier research into local stoneware conducted in 2012 and 2013.
The exhibition and publication were prepared as part of the VIA FABRILIS – Route of Craft Traditions II project, carried out by the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec and the Krkonošské Museum in Vrchlabí.
The exhibition will be on display at the Museum of Ceramics in Bolesławiec at 14 Kutuzowa Street from 15 November to 21 December 2014. Admission to the exhibition is free.