Continuing the 700 years of their ethics and heritage, the ceramic masters of Bolesławiec have established Zakłady as the largest manufacture of handmade pottery in Poland producing about 2 million of their high quality pottery pieces annually with a multitude of domestic and international clients.

 

 

Zakłady takes pride in their patronage to the arts with every hand-formed and hand-decorated piece of pottery each possessed with its own individual character, which cannot be found in the unified forms of mass-produced pottery wares. Several of their famous products, those from the Signature Collection (the Artistic Unikat Series), are crafted and signed by a master potter who creates the piece from beginning to end. With their ingenuity, the company endeavors to create top quality Polish stoneware pieces with rich functional characteristics while upholding the original design spectrum. Each year new and astonishing patterns are forms are designed and exquisitely enjoyed.

 

A few of the companies noted achievements:

v     Winner of The 1848 Gold Medal at the London Fair—the largest world fair of the time!

In the category of Industrial Design in Poland:

v     Distinction: The “Good Design” Award of 1996, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2004, 2005

v     The 1996 “The Design of the Year” Award—the best distinction being admitted in Poland.

v     1996 & 1999 Gold Metals at the Poznań International Fair DOMEXPO

v     The Lower-Silesian Product Award

v     The 2002 “Lower-Silesian Key for Success” Award—for the finest Lower-Silesian manufacturing company employing more than 250 persons.

v     The “Best in Poland” Certificate awarded for lard-production pots.

v     The 2004 “Audience’s Hit” Award – “Polagra – Farm” in Poznań for the ceramic pots and the new collection of flowerpots.

v     The 2005 “Quality Design” Award for the full “BIRD” Design Set  bestowed by the Institute of Industrial Design

v     The 2005 “Hit Polish Product” Award in the USA for the “BIRD” Design Tea Set  bestowed by the Polish-American Chamber of Commerce in Chicago and by the Polish Trade Organization (representative and organizer in Poland).

 

As one of oldest and the biggest company in the Bolesławiec region, Zakłady Ceramiczne’s unique stoneware pottery is famous worldwide for their enchanting hand-finish and functional top-quality pieces each with its own exclusive attributes that are enjoyed from generation to generation.

It was around the 7th century, that the town of Boleslawiec, Poland began making the high quality pottery that has come to define it. In the 17th century, a large deposit of vitrified clay was discovered in the basins of the Bóbr and Kwisa rivers. This caused a build up in production that brought the manufacturers in Boleslawiec to rival some of the biggest pottery producers in Europe. Many of the techniques used to make this beautiful pottery, have been passed down through generations to the Artisans of today.

One of the things that makes Boleslawiec stoneware stand out is the special clay from which it is made. Kaolin is a fine-grain white clay that is almost exclusively found in the Boleslawiec region. In a long, and painstaking process, the clay is collected, air dried, and then thoroughly checked for flaws. It is then pre-burned in an oven to create the clean white bisque on which the intricate patterns will be applied by hand. The bisque often acts as a background color and is used creatively as both negative and positive space in many different patterns.

Hand cut sponge stamps in various shapes and sizes, and paint brushes, are used to decorate the pottery. Artists layer thousands of stamps and paint marks by hand on any given piece. The patience, and consistency involved in the application of these intricate patterns is awe inspiring. Individual painters often sign the bottoms of pieces in the more artistic patterns. Polish Pottery is generally known, and instantly recognizable, for the use of traditional dark blue patterns on the white bisque, but today a wide variety of vibrantly colored patterns are available.

After the paint has dried, a special glaze is applied, and large pallets full of pottery are placed into giant ovens, and baked at 1,230 degrees Celsius (2,246 degrees Fahrenheit). When the product has cooled, it is ready for use.

In a nutshell, pottery is a general term for any ceramic ware item that a potter has created.  This can include everything from mugs, plates, bowls and other practical items, or it can include decorative pieces such as artwork, home accents, or cabinetry doorknobs.  Stoneware, on the other hand, refers to a man made stone.  It is defined as a material made by man.   So can pottery be stoneware or stoneware be pottery?  Let’s define these terms more closely.  

Pottery indeed can be made from stoneware.  Also, pottery can be made from earthenware, or porcelain.  Earthenware is another common ceramic material, however Boleslawiec  polish pottery does not use it.  Porcelain is another common material used to make pottery.  A potter works in a potterie firing the clay at very high temperatures to harden it solid.  Pottery is one of the oldest art forms and also one of the oldest technologies humans have made.  Historically pottery was decorated by hand, hence making artwork.  In Boleslawiec Poland, the decorations they make have been influenced by local customs and traditions and things around them.  For example, one of the most popular designs is the peacock feather.  This has become a symbol of Polish Pottery for over one hundred years.   

Stoneware is an One aspect of stoneware that is different than earthenware is that it is impervious to liquids (it’s waterproof!).  There is also porcelain.  Porcelain is arguably a type of stoneware.  The usual difference is that porcelain is usually brighter than stoneware, and it is also vitreous.  Stoneware is semi-vitreous.

So you may be asking what is ceramic ware then?  Easy!  Ceramic is a solid that is not made of a metallic material, that is not organic (never has lived), that was made by heating and cooling.  So if you think about it, pottery is ceramic, and so is glass.  But nowadays technologies have evolved to help us invent new ceramic materials that are used in semiconductors and many other applications.

To put it all together, Polish pottery from Boleslawiec Poland is a type of stoneware pottery.  It’s made of ceramic clay, then is fired up to harden, then painted and glazed.  The clay from the Boleslawiec region is very specific and does not exist anywhere else in the world.  That’s what makes your pottery so prized along with the hand painted designs, it’s truly an art piece.

You may not know that Polish Pottery is some of the most collected pottery in the USA.  There may be many suppliers, but it seems that only a few manufacturers have penetrated the US market.  Most distinguished is Zaklady Ceramiczne z Boleslawcu and Ceramika Artystyczna (not to be confused with Ceramika Artistyczna Wiza).  A company profile will be written soon for each of them to help you understand and correctly identify pottery pieces.

I wanted to mention my affiliation to Pottery Street.  Pottery Street imports Boleslawiec Pottery directly from Poland and has a mail order distribution throughout North America.  Although one print catalog has been mailed, future catalogs are uncertain at this time.  Online catalogs will be coming out.  Bloggery Street is Pottery Street’s official blog.

There is so much I want to share about Boleslawiec pottery, it’s hard to decide where to start.  However if there is a topic you would like discussed, please write me an email or leave a comment.  Or if you would like to become a contributor to this blog, please contact us.  We would like a variety of contributors to reflect the different styles and ideas people have. 

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