Dessert plate

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 Princes 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 and idyllic genre and landscape scenes. A dessert plate from the collection of the National Museum in Lublin, covered with white glaze with chrome green printed decoration, dated to 1840-1850, is an example of popular Ćmielów production. The faience plate depicts a genre scene - a figure of a young woman leaning over a baby lying at her feet. Surrounding the scene on the plate's collar is a wide border with a motif of serrated lace, volute ornaments and flowers, emphasising the idyllic character of the central scene.