Two round-bodied stoneware jugs with chip carving on the shoulder of one and on the belly of the other, from Raeren, Belgium, late 16th century (jugs in the Pottery Museum Raeren).
Andreas Heege, 2019
Chip carving is one of several decorative techniques where clay is removed from the surface of the object. As the name suggests, it involves cutting pointed diamond shapes out of the leather-hard clay using a sharp wire loop. This type of decoration can be found on pottery from various places, including Raeren in Belgium (Mennicken 2013, 97-105) and Siegburg near Bonn in Germany (Roehmer 2014, 208-230), and it also occurs on Creussen stoneware from Bavaria (Endres 2009) and on stoneware from Saxony (Horschik 1978). In Raeren and Siegburg, the laborious cutting technique was replaced in the 17th century by all-over stamped decoration, which later made way for all-over sprigged decoration, before incised and rocker-stamped decoration was eventually added in the 18th century.
A special technique was Frisian chip carving, which was popular from the 18th to the 20th century (Meulen/Smeele 2005).
French: Décor entaillé, décor excisé (suggested by Bernadette Schnitzler and Jacques Bastian, Strasbourg, 2019), incisions (Matthys 2005, 155)
German: Kerbschnittdekor
Translation Sandy Haemmerle
Bibliographie:
Endres 2009
Werner Endres, Steinzeug in Creussen. Die Sammlung Burkhardt, München 2009.
Gaimster 1997
David R. M. Gaimster, German Stoneware 1200-1900. Archaeology and cultural history, London 1997.
Horschik 1978
Josef Horschik, Steinzeug. 15. -19. Jahrhundert. Von Bürgel bis Muskau, Dresden 1978.
Matthys 2005
Catherine Matthys, La production présumée de Jacques Bertrand Visnon, potier de Bouffioulx vers 1600. Recherches récentes en Wallonie (Etudes et documents, Archéologie 8), Namur 2005.
Mennicken 2013
Ralph Mennicken, Raerener Steinzeug – Europäisches Kulturerbe, Raeren 2013.
Meulen/Smeele 2005
Adri van der Meulen/Paul Smeele, Fries Aardewerk. De pottenbakkers van Friesland 1750-1950 (Fries Aardewerk VII), Leiden 2005.
Roehmer 2014
Marion Roehmer, Formenkosmos Siegburger Steinzeug. Die Sammlung im Hetjens-Museum, Düsseldorf 2014.
