What is Stoneware Ceramics? Is it Good or Bad?

Stoneware ceramics were developed in Europe around 1400 in the Lower Rhine area. In cities/villages around Raeren, Cologne and Höhr-Grenzhausen all the ingredients were available. Suitable clay in the ground, wood for fuel and enough technical knowledge to fire the clay at an increasingly higher temperatures.

So in today’s Germany, they have more than 600 years of experience with stoneware. We can therefore take the folk wisdom of this type of ceramics seriously:

“Steingut ist Zeug, Steinzeug ist Gut”

In translation: “Stein” = Stone, “Gut”=Good and “Zeug” = Bad. In short, this German saying teaches us that: “Stone-Good” is Bad and “Stone-Bad” is Good? … Uh, how about that?

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