Ceramics and the Royal Vocational School of Ceramics

The Royal Vocational School of Ceramics opened in Bolesławiec in 1897. It was headed by chemist Wilhelm Pukall, formerly of the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin. Its programme combined artistic training with technical knowledge.

The school also studied the needs of local pottery workshops. Its teachers prepared clay-body and glaze recipes, developed methods of shaping, decorating and firing vessels, and helped solve production problems.

The school encouraged casting in plaster moulds, which allowed more precise and elaborate shapes. Mechanisation went hand in hand with changes in clay preparation and improvements to kilns; vessels acquired smoother, less porous surfaces.

Designs came from school teachers Ernst Heinecke and Wilhelm Waldeyer, as well as invited artists including Henry van de Velde and sculptor August Gaul. Workshops using the new methods included those of Julius Paul, Hugo Reinhold and Karl Werner. Their wares responded to changing artistic movements, from Art Nouveau to Art Deco and New Objectivity, and were sold abroad.