Saucepan

The Porcelain Manufactory in Ćmielów, founded by Count Jacek Małachowski, is one of the oldest manufactories in Poland. Although it has undergone many organisational transformations over the two centuries of its existence, it is still a rare example of continuity in the production of a single factory and thus can still delight with its products.

Ćmielów became famous for producing faience table suits and figurines and decorating with copperplate printing. A surviving receipt from the Szczuczyński Archive, dating from 1849-1850 and held in the collection of the Czartoryski Library in Kraków, allows even its introduction date to be determined. Moreover, the number of faience wares with printed decorations preserved in Ćmielów shows that their production was popular.

The manufactory produced dishes with decorations inspired by English faience with the one- and two-colour pattern that was common. Therefore, it is not surprising that the decorations on the bowls, plates, openwork baskets, jugs and saucepans referred to floral motifs of almost wallpaper character. An example is a saucepan whose body is joined to a saucer, with a more decorative form, from the National Museum in Lublin collection. The dish is entirely covered with blue printed wallpaper decoration, whose introduction Bolesława Kołodziejowa and Zbigniew M. Stadnicki date to the times of Cybulski (Zakłady Porcelany "Ćmielów" [Porcelain Manufactory "Ćmielów"], Kraków 1986, p. 21). The saucepan exterior is divided by knockers emphasising the rim, with a raised and widened spout and a tall handle on the opposite side in the shape of an exotic bird's headset on a neck curved and widened towards the bottom with plumage pointed out artistically. However, this saucepan is not a model produced in the Ćmielów manufacture. Dishes of a similar shape were produced in many European porcelain factories.