Basket

The production of faience table suits and figurines became popular in Ćmielów and the copperplate printing technique began to be used to decorate them. A surviving receipt from the Szczuczyński Archive, dating from 1849 to 1850 and held in the collection of the Princes Czartoryski Library in Kraków, allows establishing even the date of its introduction. Moreover, the number of faience wares with printed decoration preserved in Ćmielów shows that their production was extremely popular.

The manufactory produced dishes with decorations inspired by English faience with the one- and two-colour pattern that was popular at the time. 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 round basket from the collection of the National Museum in Lublin is an example of one of the most popular Ćmielów patterns at the end of the 19th century. These baskets with openwork collars were formed from delicate rolls laid diagonally and gathered by a triple roll forming the upper edge of the vessel. The type of faience was probably made by Schildowa, whose name is unknown (a wife of the "model-master" Edward Schild, see E. Kowecka, Zmiany w produkcji ceramiki na Kielecczyźnie w XIX wieku. (Upadek rzemiosła garncarskiego, tworzenie wytwórni przemysłowych) [Changes in the Production of Pottery in the Kielce Region in the 19th century. (The Decline of Pottery Crafts, Creation of Industrial Factories)] [in:] Z dziejów rzemiosła na Kielecczyźnie. Materiały z sesji 11–12 grudnia 1969 [On the History of Handicrafts in the Kielce Region. Materials from the Session of 11-12 December 1969], Kielce 1973, p. 140), working in the Ćmielów manufacture. Openwork forms with smooth bottoms were decorated in black intaglio technique. The most popular at that time were genre scenes with native or southern landscapes. The motifs of exotic plants and animals surrounded by people or architecture in the central scene are often encountered.