Introduction

The International Museum of Ceramics in Weiden is part of
Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum in Munich.
This is called a branch museum.
The museum shows valuable ceramic objects.
Ceramics means:
The objects are made of clay.
Clay is a special type of earth
that is easy to shape or mold.
There are different types of ceramics:
• Earthenware
It is usually red or brown.
It can be fired in a special oven called a kiln.
Earthenware is not very hard and breaks easily.
For example: Old pots and bowls are
usually made of earthenware.
• Hot-fired Earthenware
This earthenware is usually white or grey.
It is fired at a higher temperature than
regular earthenware.
The surface is usually covered with a glaze.
A glaze is a thin layer over the ceramic.
At first, the glaze is liquid,
but high heat turns it hard like glass.
The glaze makes the ceramic waterproof.
Everyday tableware is usually made of
hot-fired earthenware.
For example: plates and cups.
• Stoneware
Stoneware is fired at even higher temperatures.
This makes it very hard and dense.
It is waterproof even without glazing.
It is often grey.
For example: beer mugs or vessels.
• Faience or majolica
This is a special type of hot-fired earthenware.
It usually has a white glaze and is often painted.
For example: tiles, plates or vases.
• Porcelain
Porcelain is made from very fine clay.
This clay is called kaolin.
Porcelain also has the minerals feldspar and quartz.
Porcelain must be fired at a very high temperature.
It then becomes white and hard.
Porcelain is very delicate and often expensive.
For example: coffee sets, vases or figurines.
This exhibition shows ceramic objects from many countries.
Some objects are 7,000 years old.
There are simple pottery works, art objects and modern design objects.
The museum has been open since 1990.
It has objects from 6 Bavarian museums:
• State Collections of Antiquities in Munich
Antiquity is the name of a very old time period
that lasted around 1,500 years.
It was the time of the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans.
It ended around 1,500 years ago.
• Archaeological State Collection in Munich
• Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich
That means Museum of Five Continents.
• State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich
• Bayerisches National-Museum in Munich
That means Bavarian National Museum.
• Die Neue Sammlung – The Design Museum in Munich.

Here in the museum, there are alternating exhibitions of
old and new ceramics.
These are called special exhibitions.
The museum is in a building from the Baroque period.
Baroque is an art period.
The architect and monk Johann Jakob Philipp Muttone
designed the building about 300 years ago.
The building is called the Waldsassener Kasten.
In the beginning, it belonged to the Waldsassen monastery.
The monastery is near the museum.
Here is what you can learn about the objects in the exhibition:
• What is the name of the object?
• Who designed and made the object?
• When was the object designed and made?
• Where was the object made?
• What is the material of the object and what technique was used?
• Is the object a gift to the museum?
• What is the number of the object in the museum’s collection?

Die Neue Sammlung

Modernism is an art movement
that started around 130 years ago.
It lasted until around 1950.
Modern ceramics began
during the period called Art Nouveau.
This is an art movement,
in which natural shapes were very important.
For example: leaves and flowers.
At that time, Japanese art had
a big influence on ceramic designs.
Ceramic vessels often looked like natural objects.
Then the artist put a glaze over the ceramics.
A glaze is a thin layer that covers the ceramic object.
It is liquid at first, but heat makes it hard like glass.
Today, people use ceramics less for everyday objects.
Ceramics changed over the last 100 years:
from special individual pieces to ceramic figures to
artistic installations.
An installation is an art project used
to design a room or a place.
After around 1960, ceramics developed into
an art form of its own.
This was the beginning of modern ceramics today.
Modern ceramics are everyday objects,
but also art objects.

Staatliche Antikensammlungen

The objects in the exhibition come from Ancient Greece.
They are from around the years 900 to 300 BC.
This means they are around 2,300 to 2,900 years old.
There were 4 important periods in Ancient Greece:
• The Geometric period
This was around 3,000 years ago
and lasted for about 300 years.
• The Archaic period
This was around 2,700 years ago
and lasted for around 200 years.
• The Classical period
This was around 2,500 years ago
and lasted for around 200 years.
• The Hellenistic period
This was around 2,300 years ago
and lasted for about 300 years.
Each of these 4 periods has its own artistic style.
The ceramics first had strict patterns,
for example with lines and simple shapes.
Around 2,000 years ago, people in the city of Corinth
painted black figures on vases.
Around 1,500 years ago, people in the city of Athens
painted red figures on vases.
Ceramic objects were used for many purposes.
For example:
• People placed them in graves.
• People used them in everyday life.
• Dealers sold them.
The Wittelsbach Compensation Fund loaned many ceramics to the museum.

Archäologische Staatssammlung

The Near East is the area in
south-eastern Europe and western Asia.
For example,
the countries of Turkey, Syria and Jordan.
Researchers have found ceramics
from different time periods in Bavaria.
The oldest ceramics they found are
from to the Stone Age.
The Stone Age began over 2 million years ago and
lasted until about 4,000 years ago.
The more recent ceramic objects are from
the Bronze Age and the Iron Age.
Other ceramics are from the Roman period and
the Middle Ages.
The most recent ceramics are from
the last few centuries.
The objects in the exhibition show
that ceramics were always important to people.
People all over the world used them
for many different things.
Ceramics were used for everyday objects,
for example cups and tableware.
But they were also used for special events.
For example, for celebrations as gifts to the gods.
People also wrote on clay tablets
while the clay was still soft.

Clay was also used to build things.
Researchers found old ceramics in Mesopotamia
that prove this.
Mesopotamia is a large area in the Near East between
the rivers Euphrates and Tigris.
Today, this is where the countries Iraq and Syria are located.

Museum Fünf Kontinente

Very old societies lived in the country of Peru in South America.
They had a very advanced culture and way of living.
For example, the way they made arts and crafts.
The exhibition shows ceramics from these peoples.
For example, from the:
• Nazca culture
The Nazca people lived between around 2,000
and 1,300 years ago.
• Chimú culture
Chimú is pronounced Chee-moo.
The Chimú people lived between around 900
and 600 years ago.
• Chancay culture
Chancay is pronounced: Chahn-kai.
The Chancay people lived between around 1,000
and 600 years ago.
People from the city of Multan in Pakistan created
a very famous type of pottery: Blue Pottery.
This type of pottery is many hundred years old.
The patterns show that many ideas for pottery came
from Persia and South Asia.
In Thailand, there is pottery with red patterns.
This pottery is from the Ban Chiang culture.
Ban Chiang is pronounced Ban-chahng.
The Ban Chiang culture is several thousand years old.

Staatliches Museum Ägyptischer Kunst

from the State Museum of Egyptian Art
People in Ancient Egypt and Nubia had
a very advanced culture and way of living.
Nubia is the name of the area
to the right and left of the River Nile.
The Nile flows through Egypt.
Part of the culture was
that people used writing and made works of art.
In these regions, researchers found
many different ceramic vessels.
They also found the ceramic type faience.
Faience is a special type of ceramics that has a white glaze.
The name comes from the city of Faenza in Italy.
Ceramics changed over time.
This way, researchers know
how old pieces of ceramics are.
The ceramics from each period have differences.
For example:
– the shape of the vessels
– the look of the surface
The surface can be smooth or polished,
it can be colored or painted.
The technique to make ceramics also changed:
At first, clay was only shaped by hand.
Later, it was placed on a frame that could move.
And finally, people invented potter’s wheels.
The potter’s wheel keeps turning the clay
to form vessels. The display cases in the exhibition show this change.
They also show that ceramics and faience were
not only used to make vessels, but also art objects.

Bayerisches Nationalmuseum

The Bavarian National Museum
has a large collection of ceramics.
This exhibition shows all types of ceramics from southern Germany:
faience, porcelain, stoneware, and earthenware.
The ceramic factories in Amberg and Sulzbach worked
in the same way as the famous factories in Nuremberg.
They produced faience.
Faience is a special type of stoneware ceramic.
These objects usually have a white glaze and are often painted.
A glaze is a thin, transparent layer on the ceramic.
The exhibition also shows ceramics from Creußen.
Creußen is pronounced: Kroy-sen.
It is a town in northern Bavaria.
It had a stoneware factory about 350 to 450 years ago.
Stoneware is a very hard type of ceramic, and it is waterproof.
Objects from Creußen include, for example:
• Bottles
Stoneware bottles can hold high pressure.
You can even transport mineral water in them.
• Jugs
The jugs have many colorful decorations.
• Everyday tableware
The tableware is brown and
has simple shapes and decorations.
Many of the porcelain pieces
show a connection to Elector Karl Theodor.
Karl Theodor was Elector of Bavaria.
That means he was part of the Bavarian aristocracy.
Karl Theodor had a porcelain factory in
the town of Frankenthal.
This factory produced porcelain
similar to porcelain from the famous factory in
the town of Meissen.
The exhibition shows plates
made using techniques from China.
They show the coat of arms of:
Count Palatine Johann Christian von Sulzbach.
He was the father of Elector Karl Theodor.
The plates also show the coat of arms of
the father’s second wife.

Form 2000

In 1952, Philip Rosenthal and Raymond Loewy
started to work together.
Philip Rosenthal owned the Rosenthal company.
The company still produces porcelain, glass, and ceramics today.
Raymond Loewy was a designer from America.
And he knew a lot about advertising.
The 2 men wanted more people to know the Rosenthal company.
And they also wanted to make the company successful in America.
Raymond Loewy knew that a product had to look good.
It should be modern, but not too unusual.
The Form 2000 tableware and coffee set
fulfilled these criteria.
Richard S. Latham designed the tableware in 1953.
He was the chief designer at Raymond Loewy.
The coffee pot has a very unusual shape:
it looks a bit like the letter X.
The Form 2000 set combines handcrafts and design.
It served as a model for modern ceramic design and
was built to last.
Form 2000 was produced from 1954 to 1978.
Several famous designers have created
a total of 165 designs for this tableware.
For example:
• Björn Wiinblad from Denmark
• Tapio Wirkkala from Finland
• Alain Le Foll from France
• Margaret Hildebrand from Germany.
The designs were very different:
Some were plain white or cream or grey.
Some designs had straight lines or
highlighted the shape of the tableware.
Other designs were like shadows on the tableware or
used colors that were popular at the time.
There were also floral designs and simplified shapes from nature.
The handles and lids were often a different color from the pot.
The Form 2000 set shows that you can combine
beautiful design and large-scale production.

Production

There are different ways to make ceramics.
For example:
Making porcelain in a factory
or making ceramics in a small workshop.
These 2 approaches use different materials and techniques and
the ceramic objects look different.
Porcelain was invented in China around 1,400 years ago.
People in Europe only found out how to make porcelain
around 300 years ago.
To make porcelain, you have to
mix the right materials well, form an object
and then fire it in a special oven at a high temperature.
This oven is called a kiln.
The materials for porcelain are:
very fine clay called kaolin and the minerals feldspar and quartz.
Production in factories
In 1931, Hermann Gretsch designed
a special kind of porcelain for the Arzberg porcelain factory.
It is called 1382.
It is a good example of porcelain production in factories.
These are the steps to make a porcelain coffee pot:
• Step 1
First, mix the raw materials with water.
This liquid mixture is called slip.
Pour the slip into a mold made of plaster,
for example the mold for a coffee pot.
The plaster then draws some of the water out of the slip.
This way the slip dries a little.
Then the slip is almost dry on the outside of the pot,
pour out the rest of the liquid.
Only the dried clay stays in the mold.
This way the pot becomes hollow.
Then remove the mold.
The pot is now about as hard as leather.
The lid and handle are also poured into a mold.
Put all parts together and smooth all the edges.
• Step 2
Then comes the first firing.
It is called the biscuit firing.
During this firing, the pot shrinks a little.
• Step 3
Then apply the glaze and decorations.
A glaze is a thin, transparent layer over the ceramic.
• Step 4
The second firing fuses the glaze with the ceramic.
This creates a smooth and dense surface.
This firing is called the glaze firing.
Afterwards, you can continue to decorate the pot.
Production in small workshops
Ceramics are produced quite differently in small workshops.
Usually, people do this by hand.
You can do this for all types of ceramics.
There are different ways to shape the clay:
– spin the clay on a potter’s wheel,
– pour the slip into a mold,
– stick together strips or slabs of clay,
– shape the clay by hand.
Leave the objects to dry in the air first.
Then fire them in a kiln.
If necessary, do a glaze firing or further firings.
You can also skip the glaze and decorate the ceramics
using other techniques.
For example: with painting or carving.
Craftspeople often experiment in their work.
This means they try new things and
make objects that look very special and unique.

The city of Weiden and the porcelain industry

The city of Weiden is located on a very old road
between the important cities of Nuremberg and Prague.
Prague is now the capital of the country Czech Republic.
The road is known as the Golden Road.
About 700 years ago, this road made
Weiden an important place for trade.
In 1863, Weiden was connected to the railway network.
As a result, many factories were built in Weiden.
For example, glass factories and textile factories.
But the most important ones were the porcelain factories.
Weiden became an industrial town.
Porcelain is made from very fine clay.
This clay is called kaolin.
Porcelain also has the minerals feldspar and quartz.
Porcelain must be fired at a very high temperature.
It then becomes white and hard.
Porcelain is very delicate and often expensive.
For example, it is used for: coffee sets, vases, or figurines.
Weiden offered good conditions for the porcelain industry:
It is close to the town of Hirschau.
Hirschau has a lot of kaolin.
Weiden is also close the region Bohemia.
Bohemia has a lot of brown coal.
Brown coal was needed to fire the kilns.
Many people wanted to work in the factories.
This way, Weiden got 3 large porcelain factories.
The brothers August and Conrad Bauscher
founded the first porcelain factory in Weiden in 1881.
The company still makes porcelain for hotels,
restaurants, and canteens.
 
Since 1998, the company’s name is BHS Tabletop.
BHS is pronounced as individual letters.
They stand for the 3 porcelain companies
that were combined to form a new company:
Bauscher, Hutschenreuther and Schönwald.
Today, the new company is
one of the largest porcelain factories in Europe.
In 1910, Christian Wilhelm Seltmann founded
the second porcelain factory in Weiden.
This company had very modern machines.
It could produce tableware without any manual labor.
Today, it is one of the most modern porcelain factories in Europe.
The company only produces in Germany.
The third porcelain factory in Weiden
was the Bavaria company.
It was built in the Ullersricht district of Weiden.
Between 1920 and 1931, it produced
porcelain for everyday use as well as porcelain figurines.
This company no longer exists today.
But the city of Weiden still has the porcelain companies
of Bauscher and Seltmann.