Polish Pottery
Polish pottery is hand-crafted and beautifully designed ceramics. Polish pottery, also known as Boleslawiec pottery, is the collective name given to stoneware and beautiful pottery produced in the town of Boleslawiec, south-western Poland.
This stoneware comes in forms of butter dishes, plates, salad bowls or colourful pasta bowls, mugs, cups and saucers sets, jugs, cream and milk jugs, teapots, platters, and more.
The Boleslawiec pottery is generally said to be one of Poland’s unofficial cultural symbols, nicknamed the ‘Polish stoneware.’ The Polish pottery is unique by its iconic blue decorative pattern with a white base background, styled by little touches of green and yellow elements.
Decorations and Patterns
Each Boleslawiec pottery is hand-crafted and hand-decorated by artisans. These decorations and patterns come in varieties, the most popular types of Polish pottery today is the white or cream-colored ceramic with a blend of green, yellow, dark blue, brown, purple or red motifs. They usually come with designs like abstract florals, speckles, windmills, and the most common ‘peacocks eye.’
These patterns are unique and try to reflect the artist’s personal expressions. The polish pottery was created to be a functional product and remains a functional product till today, although there has been an increase in the intricacy of the designs. Traditional patterns, however, remains the most loved and most appreciated forms of polish pottery.
Durability
Polish pottery is scratch and chip-resistant, durable, and food safe. Food stored in this stoneware will remain fresh for an extended time, due to the indigenous clay’s natural tendencies.
These ceramics are microwave, oven, dishwasher, and freezer safe. Although to enjoy these ceramics for a longer time, you should avoid sudden, extreme changes in temperature, for instance, moving it from the oven to the refrigerator immediately or from the fridge to the oven without letting it cooldown). Polish stoneware is non-porous in nature, which makes the baking dishes easy to clean and maintain; there are also durable to withstand everyday use.
Use
Polish pottery ceramics are available for several purposes. Some people are just in love with the beautiful designs and would rather keep it to decorate their kitchens or dining tables. These ceramics are available for everyday use, to take coffee or tea, for baking, to serve food, to preserve food, to microwave food but should not be used on top of a stove or to cook.
How to Spot Authentic, Original Polish Pottery?
The beautiful handcrafted design of the Polish pottery has been a big factor in the increase of the popularity of these ceramics. Due to this popularity, there are bound to be a lot of fake and un-genuine products in the market, especially on the internet. Firstly, there a lot of factories in Boleslawiec Poland that manufacture these ceramics. Each of these factories has its patterns and designs, and they always differ in thickness and weight. At the bottom of every authentic Polish pottery, there is a “Hand made in Poland” stamp on it (always be on the lookout for that one) or a logo, if it is a Unikat piece, it will most likely be signed by the artist.