Stein Collectors International

~ Keramikmuseum in Frechen ~

by Rhoda Fry


This article first appeared in Prosit in December 1993.
Ever since a little bartmannkrug joined our collection, we have grown more interest in early stoneware. So, on a recent trip to Germany, Bill and I left the beaten path to learn more about Frechen wares. Frechen is located less than ten miles west of Köln (Cologne) and, after many centuries, continues to produce stoneware. There was so much we wanted to know. Where is our little stein from? How old is it? How long have bartmannkrugs been made? Where were these wares distributed? These and other questions were answered during our visit to the Keramikmuseum in Frechen.

The Keramikmuseum is a living museum, researching the history and production of Rhenish and mostly Frechen ceramics from the thirteenth through twentieth centuries. Its collection contains salt-glazed stoneware; lead-glazed earthenware; construction stoneware, such as that used for sewer pipes; and fine ceramics from the 1920's through the 1930's. Much of the collection is from archeological digs, which provide information for scientific research. Currently there is a special exhibit of a contemporary local potter and there are a number of fine early pieces on loan to the museum.

We were fortunate to have been led on a tour by Dorette Kleine, M.A., who has been the curator of the museum since it inception in 1986. At the beginning of the tour, which focused on the early stoneware, we saw a Frechen tigerware stein with a cylindrically shaped neck boasting signed silver mounts dated 1599, from Exeter, England. We have seen similar pieces at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, New York, and at the M. H. deYoung Museum in San Francisco, California. But, unlike the Frechen Keramikmuseum, these museums offer only limited access to knowledgeable curators and at most a half dozen words to describe their inventory.

You may already be wondering why a Frechen piece would have English mounts. The explanation is that Frechen wares were exported in large quantities to England as well as to the Netherlands. Clients in these countries placed custom orders; one bartmannkrug has the Order of the Garter and another has the Coat of Arms of Amsterdam. Rhenish wares were also exported to Indonesia, Japan, and China through the Dutch-East-Indies trading company, which was founded in 1602. Ocean archeologists have even found Frechen wares off the western coast of Australia from a ship that sunk in 1856. Closer to home, there is evidence of Frechen and Westerwald stoneware dating from the 17th century in Pennsylvania.

Frechen is most famous for its production of the bartmannkrug, which literally means bearded-man pot. It is also known to the English as the Bellarmine, named after the Italian cardinal Roberto Francesco Romolo Bellarmino (1542-1621). An influential counter-Reformation theologian, he publicly denounced King James I for heading the Church of England. The Protestant English, who were accustomed to the monarch-led church since King Henry VIII removed it from papal rule, mocked Bellarmine by naming the imported pots with bearded faces on them after him.

Collectors wonder whether their bartmannkrugs are from Frechen or Cologne. Some believe that the shape of the beard determines its origin. According to Steinzeug, Cologne bartmannkrugs have squared beards whereas most (but not all) Frechen bartmannkrugs have rounded ones. Dorette Kleine confirms that beards of all shapes have been found in Frechen digs. Further information is provided by a large chart in the museum that shows the evolution of the bartmannkrug from the early 16th century to the 18th century. It begins with square bearded-man faces and progresses to additional decorations, such as lettered bands, small medallions of faces, and leaves. On later bartmannkrugs the beards grow rounder, and finally the faces become cruder and more grotesque. The museum displays original molds used for the bearded-man faces, the lettered bands, and various other designs that are applied to the pots. These molds have been used in Frechen since the 1500s and could serve for many years. To sum up, a square beard can be used as an aid to dating a bartmannkrug, not to placing one. If you cannot tell the difference between Frechen and Cologne wares, you are not alone. A number of museums, including the one in Frechen, often identify pieces as being from Frechen or Cologne. But this is not surprising; the cities are relatively close to each other; both had numerous potteries; and artisans moved from one pottery and one city to another. In the mid-16th century, a ban was placed on burning kilns in Cologne during a summer drought because of the increased danger of fire. The ban was extended through winter; and ultimately, the potters moved to Frechen as well as to Siegburg and Raeren. It was around this time that Frechen beards grew rounder. Since the production of bartmannkrugs continued for so much longer in Frechen, it follows that more Frechen beards were round. To add to the complexity of identifying wares, a Frechen dig yielded a blue salt-glazed beaker from the 1600s that we would have considered modern and would certainly have attributed to Westerwald.

The museum has done a fabulous job of engaging the visitor. Many pots are displayed next to their contemporary counterparts. This innovative display, which is very helpful to non-German speakers, places a paper cup next to a beaker and baby bottle next to a small pot with a thin spout. A model of a huge, mostly subterranean, multi-room kiln provides one example of the different types of kilns that were used for stoneware and earthenware, both of which have been uncovered in Frechen digs. These displays invited us to think more about how people used these pots and how they worked in the potteries.

The museum has much more to offer and is not to be missed if you are in the area. A little book (in German only) Keramikmuseum Frechen, published by Westermann, gives more information about the museum; describes the fascinating history of Frechen and Rhenish wares; and provides a number of photographs, some in color. It is available at the museum and we have also seen it in a bookstore in Höhr-Grenzhausen. The wonderful Keramikmuseum, the hotel named "Bartmannkrug" and the bronze fountain of bartmannkrugs in the main walking street demonstrate Frechen's obvious and rightful pride in its legacy.


Bibliography:
Keramikmuseum Frechen
Kunstgewerbemuseum der Stadt Köln, Band IV: Steinzeug
Encyclopedia Britannica
Random House Dictionary
The New Universal Family Encyclopedia

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