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.
German Porcelain.
The Portuguese introduced China porcelain into Europe, and for a long time the potters sought to imitate it, but without much success, until the true kaolin was discovered by Böttger, about 1709. At Aue, Schneeberg, and in the year 1715, a pottery for the manufacture of hard porcelain was established at Meissen, by Augustus II., Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, with Böttger as director.
