They say Germany’s two greatest contributions to Western Civilization were the Reformation and hops in beer. And both happened at about the same time.
As condensed history, so it goes. But hops also radically impacted pottery history. Everybody wanted beer once early 16th century brewers, village housewives mostly, began producing it. Kids even got their diluted “little beer” for breakfast. And the best beer containers, before mass produced glass, were stoneware bottles. Demand skyrocketed. Germans had been tinkering with stoneware since the 10th century. But 16th to 18th century salt-fired German stoneware became world renowned because of beer.
Unfortunately Germany’s Rhineland district, where the best work was made, was a playground of war for centuries. Whole communities were continually uprooted by chronic warfare. Rhennish potters from Raeren, Freshcen and Siegburg ultimately ended up in the somewhat calmer Westerwald region.
Along the way they picked up improvements in clays, sprig decorations, and brilliant manganese and cobalt highlights. Their work spawned off-shoots, reproductions, fakes and revivals long after their dominance had passed.
German stoneware was so popular, English potters couldn’t prevent caveats from diluting their July 22, 1672 Parliamentary Order in Council meant to insulate local markets. The final bill prohibited imports of “any kind or sort of Painted Earthen Wares whatsoever except those of China, and Stone bottles and Juggs.”
Tons of German stoneware, literally, were shipped to England’s North American colonies during the 18th century. Ironically beer bottles and beer mugs, “krugen” and “cannen,” were not the top imports. Chamber pots were. But drinking vessels were close behind. And they were scattered almost as far.
Colonists weren’t the only admirers of salt-fired German stoneware, however. Many Native American burial sites included Westerwald jugs. When pottery is done well, there are no boundaries to how far it will be collected.
Readings:
Stoneware in America. Robert Hunter, ed.
Stoneware: White Salt-Glazed, Rhenish and Dry Body. Gérard Gusset. National Historic Parks and Sites Branch, Parks Canada, Environment Canada/Ministry of the Environment, Ottawa, Canada. 1980.
This Day in Pottery History 