Westerwald stoneware

Cylinder neck jug with initials GR (Georg Rex King of England). 2nd quarter of the 18th century.

Westerwald stoneware is a type of ceramic product that was produced in the lower Westerwald and Kannenbäckerland in the early modern period . Regardless of the provenance, the term is also generally used for blue-gray stoneware . The Westerwald stoneware was traded in large quantities throughout Europe from the 17th century and, in addition to its importance in art history, is an important marker for the dating of modern archaeological sites. From around 1650 it is one of the dominant types of goods among German stoneware and is still produced today.

Historical development

In the Westerwald, stoneware production began in the 15th century with the manufacture of simple tableware. These early products had a brown salt glaze and hardly differed from the products of other pottery locations in the Rhineland.

The most important pottery places in the Westerwald were Höhr, Grenzhausen and Grenzau in the Kannenbäckerland. These three places are now part of the Höhr-Grenzhausen community and are only a few kilometers apart. Around 1600, however, these places belonged to different sovereigns. Höhr was jointly owned by the Counts of Sayn-Wittgenstein and the Electors of Trier , Grenzhausen was part of the County of Wied while Grenzau was part of the County of Isenburg .

The Westerwald stoneware production experienced an economic boom around 1590 with the arrival of leading master potters from the pottery centers in Raeren and Siegburg .

Shortly before 1590, the Raeren pottery families of Johann Mennicken and Hermann Kalb had moved to Grenzau. Johannes Kalb stayed in Grenzau while the Mennickens moved on to Grenzhausen around 1600 to settle there permanently. The Siegburg master Anno Knütgen left Siegburg with his sons Bertram and Rutger after the Truchsessian War and settled in Höhr, where he died shortly afterwards. Another son of Anno, Hermann, followed suit in 1600.

They were joined by the Lorraine potter Peter Remy, who also moved to Grenzhausen around 1600. In addition to their templates and matrices, the foreign potters brought their expertise and their craftsmanship with them. The technology for the production of gray stoneware with cobalt blue painting, so-called blue-gray goods, proved to be particularly groundbreaking. The cobalt blue glaze was invented in Cologne as early as 1520, but it was not able to establish itself with Rhenish stoneware. Only the combination with a gray body brought economic success. Jan Emens Mennicken first tested this technique on Raeren stoneware from 1584 in Raeren . Anno Knütgen had also experimented with cobalt blue glaze for Siegburg stoneware as early as 1587 . In the new home, the technology laid the foundation for the gray-blue Westerwald stoneware of the baroque era .

Even if the local potters only produced simple, brown utensils without any artisan demands and thus were not in direct competition with the newcomers, open disputes arose. The existing guild regulations only allowed the production of simple dishes with red shards, which the newcomers tried to avoid. In 1643 a new, common, cross-district guild order for all stoneware potters in the Westerwald was established, which was supposed to resolve the disputes.

Westerwald jug from a workshop of the Mennicken family shortly before 1600. The jug is still completely in the style of Raeren stoneware.

The pottery ceramics produced in the West Forest workshops of the Knütgen , Mennicken and Kalb families in the years after 1590 can hardly be distinguished typologically from the products that they produced in Siegburg and Raeren in the 1680s. The Knütgen family continued to use signed matrices. In the Westerwald there are also signed vessels formerly Raeren potters. The monograms IE for Jan Emens and JM for Jan Mennicken can be found. By 1600 at the latest, a new style developed in the spirit of the baroque that was just developing. The Raeren and Siegburg families also mixed up. A Wilhelm Mennicken from Grenzhausen married a granddaughter of Anno Knütgen in 1620 and moved to Höhr with her.

The West Forest stoneware vessels from the 17th and 18th centuries can hardly be assigned to a specific workshop.

In the second half of the 19th century, the Westerwald stoneware flourished again with the awakening of nationalism . In the sense of historicism, the splendid forms of the High Renaissance and the early Baroque were taken up and copied. In addition to the original forms of the well-known potters, new motifs were created in the spirit of the 19th century. Heroes in shimmering armor from German heroic sagas were particularly popular. This is how stoneware vessels in the old German style were created in the Westerwald . Oriental vessel shapes were also imitated. The renewed upswing was favored by the political conditions in the 19th century. After the establishment of the Rheinbund in 1806, the traditional Westerwald pottery was added to the newly founded Duchy of Nassau . After the German War , Nassau came to Prussia in 1866 . Prussia promoted the industrialization of the pottery and the production of old German stoneware. In addition, the construction of a railway line through the Westerwald in 1884 brought significant impetus to long-distance trading in stoneware.

Stoneware production by the Merkelbach company in Höhr-Grenzhausen.

Gray-blue stoneware is still produced in Höhr-Grenzhausen today. In cooperation with the Universities of Koblenz and Koblenz-Landau , various professions in the ceramic processing industry are trained here under the umbrella of the Education and Research Center for Ceramics . The Westerwald Ceramics Museum is also located in Höhr-Grenzhausen .

technology

The tertiary refractory clay found in the Westerwald has a uniformly fine grain and is poor in iron oxide. The lack of iron causes the clay to burn into a light gray body.

Around 1590, the master potters who had moved from Raeren and Siegburg introduced the technique of producing gray stoneware with a cobalt blue glaze in the Westerwald. In the second half of the 17th century, the purple manganese glaze also appeared as a decorative element alongside cobalt blue and was also used throughout the 18th century.

At the beginning of the Westerwald stoneware production, the decor was in the style of Rhenish stoneware as a high relief. The supports were removed from the shape negatives, the matrices, and arranged on the leather-hard vessel before firing. At the end of the 17th century, potters from the Westerwald developed the red technique , in which the editions were replaced by shapes carved into the leather-hard clay mass that delimited the painted decoration. In the 18th century, incised ornaments using the Knibi technique were added. Particularly popular were zigzag lines and flower motifs, which were incised with a knibish wood using a compass. From the late 18th century, simple, simply painted patterns determine the decor of the Westerwald stoneware.

In the second half of the 19th century, beige ivory stoneware was used in addition to the classic gray-blue stoneware . A new technique of turning up the vessels in plaster molds made it possible to easily manufacture large quantities of stoneware vessels from the second half of the 19th century. This technique was developed by the Bohemian modeller Reinhold Hanke , who founded a company for stoneware production in Höhr in 1868. When Hanke became supplier to the court of the Empress Augusta in 1873, this technology was already well established.

Form spectrum

Diversity of shapes in modern Westerwald stoneware.

The range of shapes of the gray-blue Westerwald stoneware originally consisted primarily of utility ceramics such as jugs, jugs, canteens and drinking utensils. Stoneware was rather unsuitable as cookware, as it can burst with high temperature fluctuations. Up until the beginning of the 18th century, high-quality artisan crockery determined the spectrum of shapes. This ceramic vessel was intended for wealthy aristocratic, clerical or middle-class customers and was often produced to order with individual coats of arms or pictures. After the invention of European porcelain in 1709, stoneware lost its importance among courtly customers.

In the 18th century, the decor becomes simpler. There are additional shapes, such as mustard pots, cucumber pots, plates, bowls or writing sets, which meet the demands of a middle-class household.

In the second half of the 19th century were historicizing the magnificent forms of the High Renaissance and early Baroque again picked up and copied. In addition, oriental vessel forms and terra sigillata based on Roman antiquity were created . The decisive factor, however, was the change in production to mass-produced products, especially for rural households, such as milk satellites , bowls, bembels and storage vessels.

Funnel neck mug

Funnel neck cups were developed in Siegburg in the second half of the 14th century and were originally the main form of Siegburg stoneware. From the 16th century this vessel shape was also adopted in other Rhenish pottery centers such as Raeren, Speicher, Frechen or Langerwehe. They were introduced to the Westerwald by the potters who had moved from Siegburg and Raeren. Here it survived the leakage of the mold in the other Rhenish pottery centers and was produced there until the end of the 17th century.

Star jug

The star jug ​​is the typical product of high baroque Westerwald ceramics. It appears in the second half of the 17th century.

The body of the vessel is round, similar to a field bottle, but flat on the front and back. The body is usually a little pointed at the foot. The foot itself consists of a twisted stand ring that is offset towards the body. The neck of the vessel is narrow like a bottle and widens conically towards the snout. A strap handle is attached to the back of the vessel, which attaches to the upper third of the neck and to the vessel shoulder.

Only the front of the star jugs is decorated. In the middle of the body of the vessel there is usually a coat of arms incised in Red technique, which is surrounded by a large, space-consuming star-shaped ring, from which the jug owes its name. A beard mask in the shape of a lion's head is placed on the neck .

Ring can

A special form of the star jug ​​is the ring jug. It is similar in decor and structure to the star jug, but the body of these jugs consists of a ring-shaped hollow body on which, analogous to the star jug, the foot, neck and handle are attached.

Tankards

Tankard made of Westerwald stoneware with incised decor. Last third of the 18th century.

The tankard is a cylindrical drinking cup, the foot of which has approximately the same diameter as the opening and is provided with a ribbon handle.

This vessel shape is one of the most widespread Westerwald stoneware products. It was developed in the last third of the 17th century in the Westerwald from the originally Rhenish form of the pint and is still produced today.

Jar

Jars are square or polygonal screw-top bottles with rounded edges at the top and bottom. The foot consists of a twisted stand ring that is offset towards the body. The neck is very short and is used to attach a tin mount with a screw cap. They come into fashion in the Westerwald at the beginning of the 17th century.

Other production locations

Gray-blue salt-glazed stoneware in the Westerwald style was also adopted by other potters in the Rhineland, but also in pottery centers in Westphalia, Hesse and Bavaria in the 17th and 18th centuries.

Adendorf

Between 1741 and 1743 some master potters from the Westerwald emigrated to Adendorf near Meckenheim in the Rhineland , where they continued to manufacture gray-blue stoneware in the style of West Forest production using the clay deposits there. These were members of the Gerhartz, Giertz, Mennicken and Willems families.

Troisdorf-Altenrath

In today's Troisdorf-Altenrath on the edge of the Bergisches Land, the production of gray-blue stoneware according to the current state of research began in the 30s of the 17th century. Presumably, Westerwald and Siegburg potters settled here during this period. The Altenrath church books know a Leonard Mennicken from the Westerwald, who had married a daughter of Johann Knütgen in 1637.

Shortly after the Thirty Years' War , some members of the Siegburg pottery dynasty Knütgen had left their homeland and had also emigrated to Altenrath. Other family members followed suit. They adapted their production to the new home and made pottery here that can hardly be distinguished from the Westerwald goods.

The Altenrath stoneware production ceased in the 80s of the 17th century.

Hilgert

In addition to the above-mentioned places Höhr, Grenzhausen and Grenzau , a notable stoneware production is also proven in Hilgert , which is also part of the Höhr-Grenzhausen community today. Production started here in the middle of the 17th century and continued into the 18th century.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Koetschau 1924, p. 33.
2. ↑ Koetschau 1924, p. 48.
3. ^ Heinrich Gerhartz: Origin and character of the Adendorfer Kannenbäckerei with special consideration of the Gerhartz pottery family. Bonn 1917.
4. ↑ Heinz Doepgen: The Adendorfer potteries and their products as an example of Rhenish folk art. In: Heinz Doepgen: Ceramics in the Bonn district. Bonn 1969. p. 9ff.
5. ↑ Francke 1999, pp. 97f.
6. ↑ Bock 1986, p. 69.

literature

• Gisela Reineking von Bock: stoneware. Decorative Arts Museum of the City of Cologne. Cologne 1986.
• David RM Gaimster: German Stoneware, 1200-1900: Archeology and Cultural History. British Museum Press, London 1997.
• Wilhelm Elling: Rhenish and West Munsterland stoneware. Distinguishing criteria and problems of determining origin. In: Rheinisches Jahrbuch für Volkskunde 24, 1982. pp. 23–35.
• Otto von Falke: The Rhenish stoneware. 2 volumes. Berlin 1908.
• Ursula Francke : Kannenbaker in Altenrath. Early modern stoneware production in Troisdorf-Altenrath. Rheinlandia, Siegburg 1999.
• Gerd Kessler: On the history of the Rhenish-Westerwald stoneware of the Renaissance and the Baroque. The workshops, researchers and collectors. Verlag Helmut Ecker, Höhr-Grenzhausen 2002; ISBN 3-926075-11-2
• Karl Koetschau : Rhenish stoneware. Munich 1924.
• Heinz Nienhaus: About the jug-making trade in the Westerwald. From simple household dishes to ornate ornate vessels to well jugs. Keramos issue 106, 1984. pp. 39-68.
• Hildegard Odenthal: The development of blue-gray stoneware in the Rhineland. Home pages of the Siegkreis issue 1, 35th year, July 1967. pp. 1–16.
• Hans Spiegel: A reflection on the history of stoneware and a contribution to the history of the Palatinate and Saarland production facilities. In: Mitteilungen des Historisches Verein der Pfalz 67 (1969), pp. 256–273
• Hans Spiegel: About the development of historical stoneware using the example of Westerwald stoneware. In: German stoneware from the 17th to the 20th century. (= Contributions to ceramics 1), Düsseldorf 1980, pp. 4-19

Web links

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