Faience from Konigsberg manufactories at the turn of the 19th c.

Abstract

The former Royal and Ducal Prussia had strong pottery guilds. In many towns, especially small ones, the potters guild was a major one. Local potters competed with each other, with potters remaining outside the guilds and, especially in the 17th and 18th c., with the import, particularly of Dutch faience. Perhaps due to those factors there were no important pottery manufactories in the area. Closest to Elbląg was a pottery manufactory in Stolzenberg near Gdańsk (now the Chełm quarter of Gdańsk), established in 1781 by King Frederick II of Prussia. The location was chosen because of a large number of potters working in the area, who did not belong to guilds and competed with Danzig craftsmen; the manufactory was thus supposed to compete with Danzig. It worked until 1812, when it was destroyed by the French army. Today its products are known almost exclusively from descriptions and photographs that have survived from the pre-WWII museums of Danzig. A few vessels attributed to this manufactory are now preserved in the National Museum in Gdańsk. Two ceramics manufactories were established in the second half of the 18th c. in Königsberg (now Kaliningrad). The fi rst one, known as the Collin brothers’ factory, was started by Paul Heinrich Collin in 1776 and co-owned by his brother. Their faience and stoneware products did not succeed on the market and the factory was closed in 1785. Another manufactory was established by Johann Eberhard Ludwig Ehrenreich in 1772. Despite initial fi nancial diffi culties it started manufacturing faience in 1779, and faience fine in the following year. It prospered in the 1780s, producing glazed faience, English-type faience fine and less sophisticated earthenware, and from 1780 also tiles. In the years 1789–1803 the manager was Johann’s son, Daniel. The increasing competition of foreign producers led to closing Ehrenreich’s manufactory in 1812. Its output was varied, including large serving sets, toilet sets (a jug and a basin), plant pots with or without saucers, openwork containers for dried fl owers, kitchenware (pots and pans), cream jugs, sugar bowls, butter dishes, candlesticks, tea and coffee sets, tureens, bowls, sauce boats, salters, pharmacy vessels, children’s sets, fruit bowls, chamber pots and tiles. The most popular decorations were fl oral patterns painted with cobalt in various shades of blue and with manganese in violet-brownish hues.
Today, the products of Königsberg manufactories are not recognizable; there are only a few items preserved in museums. The vessels from Ehrenreich’s manufactory discovered in Elbląg are the biggest known collection at present.