German Saltware Pottery

J has a German saltware pottery ewer that couldn’t be more German if it tried. That style of blue relief decoration on heavy stoneware with shiny surface dates to the 14^th century in Rhineland. This is stoneware which bears a salt glaze.

Stoneware was discovered in the 13^th century when potters in Germany found that a hot enough kiln could produce vitrification, a term meaning that a porous material became nonporous when the minerals in the clay fused together. Prior to this discovery, a drinking vessel was formed of low fired clay, which over time became a breeding ground for disease (the same bacterial downside was true of wooden tankards). Stoneware doesn’t need a glazed surface, but a glaze adds to the decorative element and helps keep the vessel pristine.

How did potters discover salt glazing? The Rhineland was an important area for the fish trade, where the perishable product was packed in preservative salt and transported in wooden barrels and boxes. Broken down, the boxes were fuel for pottery kilns, and salt glaze was discovered. Salt, when added to the firing process when the kiln is at a high temperature (1,300 degrees Celsius) creates a non-porous shiny stoneware, which can safely contain oils and liquids. A famous location for the type of raised relief decoration seen on J’s wheel-shaped ewer is Höhr-Grenzhausen in Rheineland-Pfalz, where potters were creating this distinctive stoneware called Grenzau-ware from the 1580s. These age-old traditional firing methods were earth-shattering technological discoveries in their day. 

Another important region for salt-glazed stoneware is the Westerwald area, where grey clay is decorated through the application of molds and incising of the clay. The raised patterns (called the relief) are accentuated with a dark blue glaze formed from cobalt oxide. One of the forms famous in the area is a handled drinking vessel called the krug, as opposed to the stein. The term ”stein” is the German word for stone, because the material stoneware was thought to be as hard as a stone. The krug’s form is typically bulbous in the middle of the vessel and geometric, artistically applied decorative flourishes emphasize this. 

Traditional German saltware has been closely identified with the German domestic table for centuries; think of those robust blue/gray steins of beer, massive lidded bowls for sauerbraten, weighty stoneware platters for wurst and thick brown bread. 

Notice the central circular relief decoration on the 13” ewer which features a saint (well, he has a halo) dressed in a medieval hunter’s costume. A large stag is at the forefront of the action. The saint has dismounted or fallen from his horse; around him sport three hunting dogs. One dog looks back at the saint in surprise, having been in pursuit of the stag. This saintly figure is a representation of St. Hubert (656-727 AD), the patron saint of ethical, compassionate hunting. 

Here’s the myth: One Good Friday when all villagers were at church, Hubert pursued a most beautiful stag. In hot pursuit on horseback, the stately creature turned to look at the hunter, lifting its head. Suddenly a crucifix appeared between its antlers. Hubert leapt from his horse and fell prostrate before the apparition. When he arose, his life was changed. Hubert gave his wealth to the poor upon his return to his village and studied for the priesthood, fasting and praying. He became the Bishop of Liege in 708 AD. His feast day is May 30.

Notice the ewer’s spigot in the shape of another popular animal of the hunt, the German tusked wild boar, a big game animal that can remain fierce well into their old age at seven years. Wild boars roam the mountainous regions of Bavaria. If teased or threatened they can charge at 30 mph and leap over fences up to three feet tall. The wild boar’s face on the ewer holds a ring in its mouth, a suggestion of its domesticated cousin, the pig. 

Strangely enough, the base of the ewer features lion’s heads, not a creature that roams the Bavarian countryside. A grapevine design in relief indicates the vessel poured wine. 

Stoneware became important from the 15^th to the 19^th century because of its durability and use for secure storage. By the 16^th century German stoneware was exported all over central Europe and Britain, and German potters included relief portraits of English and French kings, depending on the imported country. The lowly salt-glazed stoneware krug or stein became one of the first forms to be internationally traded. J’s ewer is mid to late 19^th century, hearkening back to the Northern Renaissance 17th century style (old stoneware is worth more), and is $300.