Production Raeren Stoneware, circa 1550:

“Stop! No more wood, the white fire has been reached. Scoop the salt into the kiln.”

Men with faces covered in dirty rags, with blisters on their hands defying the caustic chlorine fumes that hang around the kiln like a white cloud. With tearful eyes they scoop kilos of salt into the kiln. Finally, the kilnmaster gives the signal: they can close the kiln.

For five days and nights they have fired a kiln with more than 2,000 pots. The work of many months is at stake. If this kiln fails, all will be in vain.

Not to mention the consequences for the pottery and the families who depend on it. Can the debt still be paid this month or will it be seized by the freelord?

How did a small village on the Lower Rhine develop into one of the largest producers of European stoneware in the 16th century? For that we have to go back to Roman times…

1200-1400: Proto stoneware

The surroundings of the Lower Rhine area have been a ceramic center since Roman times. High-quality pottery is produced around Cologne, Trier and Heerlen. But after the collapse of the Roman Empire in 410, these centers also perished. However, despite the hundreds of years of chaos that followed on the European continent, the potters in this area manage to retain almost all ceramics knowledge.

When peace returns some 400 years later (ca. 800), new ceramic centers arise in the same environment. Especially around Pingsdorf and Brunsum/Schinveld (Limburg). But initially these potters no longer produce on the potter’s wheel, as in Roman times. This knowledge is then lost. They initially fired hand-formed earhenware, but from about 1200 they started experimenting with higher firing temperatures.

This high-fired earthenware is stronger and less permeable, but gives also more misfires. At the end of the 13th century, ceramics were now so high-fired and strong that we nowadays talk about “proto-stoneware”. Waiting for the development of real stoneware…

1400: “Rheinisch Steinzeug” the first European stoneware

In other parts of the Lower Rhine region such as Cologne, Langerwehe, Siegburg, Mayen, Westerwald and Frechen, ceramics production and thus trade is also getting back on track. From around 1200, high-fired pottery was also made in the area around Raeren (in present-day Belgium, near Aachen in Germany). Here, in particular, pots, cups and jugs are now being made again on the wheel.

From about 1400, the ceramics are fired so high (above 1250 ^oC) that there is now talk of “real” stoneware. The shard is densely sintered, not porous, much stronger than earthenware, with a high pitched sound when you “ping” it.

This is the beginning of the “Rheinisch Steinzeug” or the Rhine Stoneware in Englisch. There is much debate among archaeologists where the first European Stoneware was discovered; Frechen, Hohr-Grenzhausen, Siegburg or …. Raeren.

1400-1530: The rise of Raeren Stoneware

Be that as it may, ceramics have been made in Raeren since about 1200 and stoneware from 1400, just like in other ceramics centers in the immediate vicinity.

Initially, the base of the jugs was vaulted. The throwers do not yet cut the work to separate from the wheel with a wire. Instead, they pull the pot off with their bare hands, resulting in deformation of the foot. In order to make the foot stable and tidy again, waves were pressed into the foot with the thumb. A practical solution and also a beautiful decoration.

The competition in the region is big, so they are constantly looking for new techniques. The new generations of potters improve shape and color in the taste of the time.

From around 1550, a new finish became popular: salt glaze. At temperatures above 1250 ^oC, (table) salt appears to evaporate and precipitate on the pots in the white-hot kiln .

This salt gives a shiny, easy to clean, strong and acid-resistant finish. Certainly in comparison with the lead-containing earthenware glaze, which was vulnerable to (lactic) acid. In addition, it took on the smell and taste of everything it came into contact with. It is logical that modern salt-glazed stoneware was popular, despite the higher price.

1530-1625: The heyday of Raeren Stoneware

From around 1500, the production of Raeren Stoneware became increasingly important in the region. In the heyday, from about 1530, production has grown to more than 600,000 works per year from about 50 kilns. The best pieces are for export and are traded all over the world. The Dutch VOC ships pots and jugs from Raeren to Africa, Asia, America and Australia.

In the course of 1400, the Raeren potters decorated their work with faces and bagpipes. The bearded face on round bottles; the so-called bearded man jars (called “Bellarmines” in England) became popular from around 1500. Under the influence of the Renaissance some 60 years later, the decorations are becoming more and more extensive.

Raeren utility ceramics are increasingly developing into decorative ceramics. New craftsmen are recruited for this, the “Formenstechers“. These engravers carve a relief in negative from soft stone, low-fired biscuit or plaster. The potters use these negatives to make a positive in clay. They then attach this positive clay print to the jug or pot.

The engravers made entire scenes supported by written spells. They were inspired by motifs from the Bible and Greek antiquity. But they also carved reliefs after “normal life”. For example, the dancing farmers; “der Bauerntänze” is popular.

1625-1800: The downfall of Raeren Stoneware

Unfortunately, nothing is permanent in life. The competitor remains proverbially murderous, like the adjacent Westerwald, which develops into the “Kannenbäckerland“.

But real killers also pass by during the 30 years War (1618–1648). In 1625 soldiers turned their weapons at the population of Raeren. One of the surviving potters makes a medallion in memory: a cannon aimed at the Raeren pots…

But even after this disastrous war, the village was not safe. Marauding mercenary troops of the French Sun King Louis XIV destroyed the village around 1670.

In 1693 it turned out that less than half of the houses were still standing. The 39 remaining pottery families kept themselves alive by copying the more simple Westerwald ceramics.

After a brief revival, the area was again ravaged by war at the end of the 18th century . This time between the French and the Habsburgs. The French victors (1794) subsequently denied the Raerener potters free clay extraction, a ban on the import of salt and the use of the wood from the forest.

The end or a new beginning?

This is the death blow for the Raeren stoneware potters. In 1850 the last potter, fired the last kiln in Raeren.

This was the sad end of the stoneware ceramics from Raeren. Wars only make victims, also in Raeren.

But their heritage has been preserved in museums around the world. Such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Louvre in Paris, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and … in Raeren itself.

But that’s for a next blog!

Read more:

• “Raerener Steinzeug – Europäische Kulturerbe”, (2013) R. Mennicken
• “Steinzeug aus dem Raerener und Aachener Raum”, (1977) L. Hugot
• “Uit het leven van de Raerense Pottenbakkers” (2018), R. Mennicken

About Post Author

Daniel Bende

Designs and creates under the trade name DFB-ceramics hand-thrown stoneware figurative ceramics.

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