The history of shaping and firing clay products in the area of present-day Lwówek is at least as old as in Bolesławiec. Accidental finds from the middle of the last century—made while digging graves at today’s municipal cemetery (“Garnkowa Góra”—German Topfenberg)—as well as organized excavations from the beginning of the 20th century (a burial ground in the area of the building at 3 X Dywizji Street) confirm the high craftsmanship of Lwówek potters from the Lusatian culture period. Urns excavated before the war in Płakowice and Rakowice (the so-called “Rakowice hoard”) also came from the same period. Products from the early and later Middle Ages display a similarly high standard; during numerous foundation works in the post-war period, very large quantities of pots were repeatedly discovered (for liquids or loose materials), so that conclusions were often hastily drawn about the discovery of former weaving workshops, for example at Waryńskiego Street (formerly Młyński Zaułek) and Orzeszkowej Street (formerly Lubańska),The first two potters mentioned by their first and last names appear under the year 1481, while information about the existence of a potters’ guild in Lwówek dates only from 1511 (11 January), and comes from Jelenia Góra; the local Council sent a letter to the Lwówek Council accusing the Lwówek guild of not wishing to admit citizens of Jelenia Góra. The documented contacts between our potters and their neighbours are somewhat older. Thus, in 1491, the knight Nickel v. Kittlitz of Ocice certified the “legitimate origin” of Hans Reusse, who wished to enter the Lwówek community. A later piece of information comes from 1579; on the Thursday after Pentecost of that year, the abbess of the Nowogrodziec convent, Elżbieta Ottin, asked the local Council to admit Marcin Beyer of Nowogrodziec to the guild and the ranks of Lwówek burghers.From the other neighbouring contacts of the potters, one case—perhaps with the flavour of a scandal—from the end of that very century also deserves attention. On 9 January 1599, the Lwówek masters submitted a motion to their Council asking it to prohibit the people of Bolesławiec from coming to Lwówek fairs and markets with their white and brown pottery; in return, they themselves undertook not to travel to Bolesławiec with their wares, and the motion was accepted. Unfortunately, this arrangement did not last very long, because as early as the following year, on 4 October, the Lwówek Council granted the request of the Bolesławiec potters, allowing them to come to Lwówek Śląski with their pottery. Unfortunately, it is now impossible to determine with what “appendage” or “appendages” the people of Bolesławiec arrived in Lwówek.The contacts between the two pottery communities continued in later times as well, but after the Thirty Years’ War (1618–1648), pottery in Lwówek began to decline, so that the number of masters there reached 7, 5, or even 3 (in the mid-18th century). The growing dominance of the Bolesławiec community additionally contributed to the decline in production in Lwówek. During that period, the annual output of all workshops in Bolesławiec amounted to approximately 8,000–10,000 thalers. At the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries, the following clay deposits were known in the Lwówek–Bolesławiec district:1. white: near Mroczkowice, in Świeradów, Gierczyn, Lwówek, Bolesławiec, Suszki, Janice and Włodzice Wielkie,2. bluish: by the manor farm in Mojesz (near Lwówek),3. reddish: near Lwówek and Bolesławiec,4. brown-red: in Niwnice (from there Bolesławiec potters obtained clay for their brown products),5. grey: near Mroczkowice and Bolesławiec.Earlier, clay was also mined in Ustronie (1774), but by the end of the 18th century its deposits had been exhausted.