Lower Rhenish bowl
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A typical 19th century Lower Rhenish slip-decorated earthenware bowl or platter bearing all the blemishes of age. Found discarded and unwanted, waiting to be rediscovered. A utilitarian product weathered by time and use into an object of real beauty.
This bowl is most probably from Tegelen, renowned for its large-scale pottery industry and for producing slip-decorated ceramics (cf. Niek Hoogland and Keramiekcentrum de Tiendschuur). It shows all the signs of spontaneity and freedom of application characteristic of the technique. Images two to five are from the book Tegelsche Volkskunst (1943) by Bechtold and Goossens, with examples of similar bowls. Image five is particularly interesting and shows a team of ‘kleistekers’ (clay cutters) digging clay on small terraces called ’schavotten’ (literally: scaffolds) to haul the cut clay up or down for transporting to the nearby potteries.
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Keramiekcentrum Tiendschuur Tegelen
Kasteellaan 8
5932 AG Tegelen
The Netherlands
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