German Pottery.
German stoneware was manufactured at an early date, and in the countries bordering upon the Rhine the industry must have been in an active state in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, judging from the plentiful examples of the different varieties of the ware formerly known as “Grès Flamands” or “Grès de Flandres,” but now classified under their proper German origins. In the sixteenth century this ware was carried in great quantities from Raeren, from Frechen and Sieburg, near Cologne, and from Greuzhausen, near Coblentz, down the Rhine to Leyden and the Low Countries.
Fig. 64.—Delft Vase.
The brown stoneware of Raeren—which formerly belonged to the ancient Duchy of Limbourg—was especially in great request in Flanders. This brown ware was of a spherical or cylindrical shape, divided by a central broad band, with decorations of figure subjects, shields, masks, arms, &c.; the neck is also decorated with shields and bosses, and the foot with rings and guilloche ornament. Some good specimens of blue stoneware—called the “blue of Leipzig”—were also made at Raeren.
At Frechen, near Cologne, the celebrated “Greybeards” or “Bellarmines” were first made, that were imported and imitated so much in England during the reign of James I. (see Fig. 73). They were decorated with the head of an old man with a long beard, and sometimes also with armorial bearings or figure subjects.
The Sieburg stoneware was a cream-coloured ware, richly decorated in relief, and chiefly consisted of long narrow drinking tankards with metal covers, called “Pokals.”
At Greuzhausen and at Höhr were manufactured small jugs called “cruches,” also saltcellars, inkstands, and braziers were made in grey stoneware decorated in parts with the rich “blue of Leipzig” and with various relief ornaments.
In the end of the seventeenth century and beginning of the eighteenth at Creussen, in Bavaria, tankards or drinking mugs were made of a round shape with covers, and decorated with figures of the Apostles in relief, and coloured in bright crude colours that look like oil painting: they are known as “Apostel Kruges,” or Apostle mugs.
At Nuremberg, tiles, pipes, and stoves were manufactured in glazed brown or green stoneware, and at the same place a celebrated potter named Augustin Hirschvogel made different kinds of ware in tin-glazed enamel, who with his family preserved for a long time the secret in Germany of this particular glaze.
Delft, a town in Holland, was renowned in the seventeenth century for its extensive manufacture of the fayence known as “Delft.” The potteries of Delft were established in the early years of the century, and towards the end upwards of thirty potteries were in full working order. The genuine delft ware is of a fine hard paste, has a beautiful and clear smooth enamel, and is decorated with almost every kind of subject, chiefly in a blue camaïen.
Attempts at polychrome decoration are very rare, but a red colour has been often used. The style of design and shapes were generally imitations of Chinese, Japanese, and Dresden wares (Fig. 64). Almost every class and shape of the usual pottery objects were manufactured, and some plates and vases were of very great dimensions.