Stoneware factory Luisenruh
The earthenware factory Luisenruh (originally Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensruh ) was a manufacturer of earthenware at Luisenruh Castle in Aystetten near Augsburg that existed from 1807 to 1867 . Extensive industrial archaeological investigations and excavations on the site in 1986 allowed an exact reconstruction of the building history and operational processes of the factory. They also provided information about the products made at the time.
history
After the discovery of a suitable deposit for sinterable white-burning clays for the production of earthenware near the Luisenruh Castle on the occasion of the road construction, the establishment of the manufacture began by the owner Baron Sebastian Balthasar von Hößlin . In 1808 he retroactively issued a production concession, which was granted to him on December 22, 1808. Hößlin was city planning director in Augsburg; his office was also responsible for the maintenance and expansion of the city's water supply. In the application for a license, the entrepreneur demanded that no further ceramic production facilities should be approved within a six-hour walk from his factory; but this request was not granted. Since around 1812, a brick factory has also been part of the company, which was probably built on the site where the field fire furnace previously stood, which supplied the bricks for the castle and the factory buildings. In 1819 eight craftsmen were employed. Since the manufacture of earthenware required great craftsmanship, specialists from the so-called Kannenbäckerland had to be recruited, the local stonemakers did not master the technique of firing ceramics at high temperatures. The first master potter in Louisensruh was therefore a bottle maker named Peter Gerhard from the Westerwald , who was identified by signature stamps with his monogram PG on the fragments of water bottles. However, in 1811 Gerhard left the company after conflicts with the other craftsmen.
From 1792 von Hößlin was married to Louise Charlotte Friederike Freiin von Schnurbein (1775–1795). Their first daughter, Rosina Elisabeth Louise, was born in 1793. After the death of her father in 1845, Rosina von Hößlin leased the factory to the flask maker [sic!] Mathias Schwarz (born 1815) from Aystetten. In 1867, together with her son Oscar, she asserted in court that the operation of the factory was stopped against the will of the tenant and that his permission to use the stove was withdrawn. In the same year the demolition took place. The production was stopped, among other things, because of the fire hazard of the now dilapidated English kiln. A repair was unprofitable for the 74-year-old owner. The later suspected exhaustion of the clay pit and thus the lack of raw material as the reason for the closure is clearly not true. After the factory was demolished, stoneware production was relocated to what will later be Aystettener Bahnhofstrasse 12; from 1903 directly on the Augsburg-Welden railway line . Anton Schwarz (1852–1927), the son of the last tenant, founded the Anton Schwarz clay pipe factory .
Production conditions, technical equipment
The manufactory had a large so-called English kiln , which was built according to the principle of the Wedgewood kiln in the shape of a tower. Other structures included a factory building, a mud hut for processing the clay, three brick pits, a 23 meter deep well with an iron punpe, two wooden huts, a shed, a Lettengrube and a brick factory. There was a store for firewood and one for the supply of clay.
In 1815 the inventory of the company also included a so-called Koblenz oven for the salt fire , it was the first kiln on the site, as well as an iron drying oven for heating a drying room above. Work was carried out on six pottery turntables , there was a workbench for beating the clay and a mill for grinding the glazes. Apparently there was also a kind of laboratory, called the room for the preparations in the floor plan . Salt and aggregates for the clay were stored and mixed there.
The large "furnace according to Wedgewood" was located in a rectangular, almost square-shaped tower structure, which measured approximately 8.6 × 9.17 m. This protective structure was at a distance of 2.5 to 3.5 m from the neighboring buildings in order to reduce the risk of fire and was divided into two floors. In the lower was the stove, which was a full floor height, and on the floor above there were large window openings to let in light and fresh air. The tower with its partially iron-reinforced roof towered over the neighboring workshop building and was probably covered with plain tiles. The furnace itself was a round furnace with five star-shaped fireplaces to allow even heating. The invention of the round kiln is attributed to the French Jean-Étienne Guettard , who worked for the Manufacture royale de porcelaine de Sèvres in the Paris suburb of Sèvres . So the principle of the round kiln first came to England and from there to the production in Louisenruh.
Each craftsman in the factory was contractually obliged to make 150 pieces a day . In contrast to other companies, the factory was able to work all year round because clay stocks could be stored frost-free in the buildings for continuous production. The Steinguthfabrik Louisensruh had a wholesaler in Munich who bought up to 30,000 pieces a year.
Products
In the factory, not only earthenware dishes, bottles, jugs and flower pots, but also more heavily fired stoneware such as fireproof ceramic household items, bowls and acid-proof pharmacy vessels such as mortars , graters and steaming dishes were made; but also building ceramics, such as hard-fired bricks for stoves. A specialty of the manufactory were the stoneware pipes for water pipes, which even later were no longer made by hand, but already industrially mechanized. The company took part in trade fairs and exhibitions in Augsburg several times and received awards and prizes, especially for the tubes. In addition to the tubes, bottle-like water and beer mugs [sic!] Were produced, each with a small handle near the neck of the bottle and able to hold liquids of around 0.3 to 1.5 l. These jugs or seltzer water bottles were labeled differently for use, for example the “SELZERS” logo suggests that these bottles were filled with mineral water from a fountain directly at Luisenruh Castle and sold as healthy mineral water. In addition to the manufacture, von Hößlin also operated a water trade at times. Smaller jugs were partially glazed with a cobalt blue cross to mark them as containers for holy water .
Manufacturer brands
Since no intact ceramics from the Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensthal have yet been discovered in museums or collections, the manufacturer's marks had to be reconstructed based on the fragments found during the excavations. These were located as so-called leveling layers in the immediate vicinity of the building, but also as building rubble from the demolition of the factory in the clay pit.
| stamp | comment | Period | |
|---|---|---|---|
| PG |  |
Signature of the first master of the manufacture, Peter Gerhard | until 1811 |
| LOUISENSRUH |  |
Seal arranged in a circle in the upper or lower area with a small flower from the early days of the manufacture | 1807-1845 |
| BvH or BVH |  |
Balthasar von Hößlin | 1813-1845 |
| SELZERS - bra |  |
probably Balthasar [von] Hößlin, "BH" in combination with a crown symbol above it, surrounded by the words "SELZERS" | 1813-1845 |
| MS Louisensruh |  |
Maker's mark of the tenant Mathias Schwarz | 1845-1867 |
| LOUISENSRUH |  |
hand-carved lettering on a brick | from the brick factory, after 1812 |
literature
- Wolfgang Czysz : Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensruh. Archeology of a stoneware manufacture in the early 19th century near Aystetten in Bavarian Swabia (= Neusässer Schriften. Volume 7.) Kieser, Neusäß 1992, ISBN 3-8242-9970-4 .
- Wolfgang Czysz: Excavations in the stoneware factory Louisenruh near Aystetten in the district of Augsburg. In: Werner Endres, Wolfgang Czysz, Gabriele Sorge: Research on the history of ceramics in Swabia. Workbooks of the Bavarian State Office for Monument Preservation. 58, 1993, pp. 211-216.
- Wolfgang Czysz: Swabian stoneware - the "Steinguth-Fabrique" Louisensruh near Aystetten, Augsburg district. In: Wolfgang Czysz, Werner Endres (Hrsg.): Archeology and history of ceramics in Swabia. Exhibition of the Swabian Folklore Museum Oberschönenfeld, the Bavarian State Office for the Preservation of Monuments, Augsburg branch, and the city of Neusäß from June 25 to October 2, 1988 (= Neusäßer Schriften 6). Neusäß 1988, ISBN 3-8242-9960-7 , pp. 186-193.
- Gernot Kirzl: Industrial archeology discovers stoneware factory of the 19th century. 1993, OCLC 632987907 .
Web links
- D-7-7530-0058 - 19th century stoneware pottery. (PDF) at geodaten.bayern.de
- Gerald Lindner: summer residence with a wonderful view. In: Augsburger Allgemeine. September 9, 2012.
Individual evidence
- ^ Wolfgang Czysz: Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensruh. Archeology of a stoneware factory in the early 19th century near Aystetten in Bavarian Swabia. Neusäß 1992, pp. 160-165.
- ↑ Louisensruh Castle - Aystetten. ( Memento of the original from December 22, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF, p. 7.) at aystetten.de
- ^ Wolfgang Czysz: Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensruh. Archeology of a stoneware factory in the early 19th century near Aystetten in Bavarian Swabia. Neusäß 1992, p. 168.
- ^ Wolfgang Czysz: Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensruh. Archeology of a stoneware factory in the early 19th century near Aystetten in Bavarian Swabia. Neusäß 1992, p. 51 ff.
- ^ Wolfgang Czysz: Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensruh. Archeology of a stoneware factory in the early 19th century near Aystetten in Bavarian Swabia. Neusäß 1992, p. 54 ff.
- ^ Polytechnic Association for the Kingdom of Bavaria: Art and trade sheet of the Polytechnic Association for the Kingdom of Bavaria. Volume 5. Fleischmann Trautwein, Munich 1819, pp. 671-672. ( books.google.de ).
- ↑ Via stone water pipes, which the stoneware factory in Louisenruh near Augsburg delivers. In: Bayerisches Industrie- und Gewerbeblatt. February 27, 1819, No. 9, pp. 129-135. ( books.google.de )
- ^ Wolfgang Czysz: Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensruh. Archeology of a stoneware factory in the early 19th century near Aystetten in Bavarian Swabia. Neusäß 1992, p. 156 f.
- ^ Wolfgang Czysz: Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensruh. Archeology of a stoneware factory in the early 19th century near Aystetten in Bavarian Swabia. Neusäß 1992, pp. 114-119.
- ^ Wolfgang Czysz: Steinguth-Fabrique Louisensruh. Archeology of a stoneware factory in the early 19th century near Aystetten in Bavarian Swabia. Neusäß 1992, pp. 28 and 44 ff.
Coordinates: 48 ° 24 ′ 34.5 " N , 10 ° 46 ′ 38.2" E