Pot with bail handles and lid

The vessel, with a bulbous, strongly rounded body, a high collar at the spout and a sturdy, wide bow handle with an anchor point at the edge of the spout, has a shape typical of white-glazed pots made in Pomerania from the 18th to the beginning of the 20th century. It is decorated all around with four bands of alternating blue and a delicate shade of turquoise blue. The ear is ornamented similarly but with less care. The pot is distinguished by its lid, the only specimen of this type preserved in the collection of the Szczecin Museum. It is domed, flattened at the top, decorated with straight and wavy lines and provided with a ball-shaped handle. Pots with lids served as contemporary thermal vessels, primarily to carry hot meals. Lead-tin glaze in white, grey or pink tones and decorations in various shades of blue, green, turquoise, violet and yellow are characteristic features of the ceramics known as Stettiner Ware (Szczecin's Commodity), Stettiner Gut (Szczecin's Good), or Stettiner Zeug (Szczecin's Product). The technology to produce the white glaze was complicated and expensive. However, such glazed products guaranteed the potters a good income at fairs and markets, and the surplus could be exported. Pottery was exported from the whole Pomerania, usually through intermediaries, via Szczecin harbour. It was dealt with by skippers of small ships, for whom the sale of vessels was an additional trade offer, next to the main cargoes, such as wood, grain or butter. White Szczecin pottery went by sea to the countries on the Baltic and the North Sea, where it was called 'Schifferfayence' (skippers' faience) because of its suppliers.

Iwona Karwowska