Vase

In 1881, thanks to the owner, the Factory of Artistic Faience and Stove Tiles was opened on Prince Michał Piotr Radziwiłł's estate in the buildings of the former brewery in Nieborów.

Initially, its products did not attract much attention. However, the wide dissemination of knowledge about the maiolica manufactured there made it possible to open a grand exhibition of  Nieborów products at the Europejski Hotel in Warsaw in June 1884. The press published numerous articles on the value and beauty of the Nieborów wares. The main warehouse for ceramic products was established at 5 Berga Street (currently Traugutta Street) and representative offices in St Petersburg and Kyiv were also set up. The Catalogue of Artistic Maiolica Products from the Factory of Prince Michał Radziwiłł in Nieborów, published in 1885, listed almost two hundred various products. In 1897, the factory was closed down as it failed to bring the expected profits.

Today, the few examples gathered in museums and private collections are valuable examples of those unique ceramics.

The vase in the form of a slipper from the Lublin collection is a fascinating, somewhat surprising vessel form, corresponding to the taste of the end of the 19th century. The slipper, a soft pouch for tobacco, served as a model of a small vase decorated with fanciful floral and plant motifs of vivid colours and distinctive form. The author of these decorations was the painter Stanisława Francikowska as is indicated by the name S F preserved on the underside of the vessel.

Francikowska was a decorator of the Nieborów pottery works between 1881 and 1886. The knowledge allows dating the items signed by her to the best years of production. The fact that women were employed at the Nieborów factory indicates that the selection of workers was highly crucial to the factory owner. He considered the female staff as the most important, underestimated in other ceramic centres. In a letter to the editor of 'Świt', he wrote as follows: 'In those few rare maiolica factories, which I visited today, I did not meet women at all. I even think that Nieborów is the only one employing them [...]. Our ladies are all daughters of people who have served their country well'.

Magdalena Norkowska