Shaving basin signed and dated 1866 by David Anderes, Heimberg (SST-00649). “A man without a beard has no style at all”.

Pottery made by David And(e)res in CERAMICA CH

Andreas Heege, Andreas Kistler 2019

David And(e)res (1810-1873; Buchs 1988, 94) was a potter from the Canton of Bern, who may have worked at 89 Dornhaldestrasse, not his own workshop, however, but that of his brother-in-law, Niklaus Beutler-Andres (1817-?), who was also a potter. Niklaus had bought the site in 1842 and built a new house and potter’s workshop (Grundbuch Steffisburg 18, 424-426).

While we know relatively little about David’s life (place of origin Berken, parish of Herzogenbuchsee) and work, he has become better-known among pottery researchers for one of his shaving basins (SMT 649, Heege/Kistler 2017a, 473 Fig. 1). He signed and dated it 1866, painted it using a very runny cobalt blue slip and added distinct, dark-brown lettering.

Oldest dated plate in this series from 1855 (SMT 4462). “My kisses are gentle without a beard”.

The earliest object decorated solely with blue painting and dark-brown lettering in the Canton of Bern dates from 1854 (Swiss private collection). Based on the shaving basin shown above (SST-00649), this decorative style, sometimes combined with polychrome slip-trailing, is often thought to have been made exclusively by the workshop of potter David And(e)res in Heimberg (Wyss 1966, p. 40; Messerli Bolliger 1991, 47–48; Roth-Rubi/Schnyder/Egger/Fehr 2000, 6–10; Boschetti-Maradi 2007, 58–59). However, given that some objects in this group bear dates as late as 1884, this is no more convincing than the exclusive attribution to the Loosli workshop in Wimmis as proposed by Fernand Schwab (Schwab 1921, 106 fn. 72). It cannot be confirmed that only one workshop in Heimberg produced wares with blue painting. Master potter Christian Matthys, for instance, created very similar pottery in his workshop on Dornhalde in 1872 (MKB  VI-919; Messerli Bolliger 1991, Pl. 14, Fig. 25); ceramic fragments with a coat of white slip and partial blue decorations dating from the first half of the 19^th century are known to have been produced by a workshop in neighbouring Steffisburg (Heege 2012, Fig. 12); and potters in Langnau in the Emmental Valley also made extensive use of runny blue slip-trailing from 1840 onwards (RML  A089) and particularly in the early second half of the 19^th century (Heege/Kistler 2017, Fig. 205).

Translation Sandy Haemmerle

References

Blaettler/Schnyder 2014
Roland Blaettler/Rudolf Schnyder, CERAMICA CH II: Solothurn (Nationales Inventar der Keramik in den öffentlichen Sammlungen der Schweiz, 1500-1950), Sulgen 2014, 62–63.

Boschetti-Maradi 2007
Adriano Boschetti-Maradi, Geschirr für Stadt und Land. Berner Töpferei seit dem 16. Jahrhundert (Glanzlichter aus dem Bernischen Historischen Museum 19), Bern 2007.

Buchs 1988
Hermann Buchs, Vom Heimberger Geschirr zur Thuner Majolika. Thun 1988.

Heege 2012
Andreas Heege, Drei neuzeitliche Grubeninventare von Jegenstorf, in: Archäologie Bern/Archéologie bernoise. Jahrbuch des Archäologischen Dienstes des Kantons Bern, 2012, 159-196.

Heege/Kistler 2017
Andreas Heege/Andreas Kistler, Poteries décorées de Suisse alémanique, 17e-19e siècles – Collections du Musée Ariana, Genève – Keramik der Deutschschweiz, 17.-19. Jahrhundert – Die Sammlung des Musée Ariana, Genf. Mailand 2017.

Hoffmann-Krayer 1914
Eduard Hoffmann-Krayer, Heimberger Keramik. Schweizer Archiv für Volkskunde 18, 1914, 94–100.

Messerli Bolliger 1991
Barbara E. Messerli Bolliger, Der dekorative Entwurf in der Schweizer Keramik im 19. Jahrhundert. Zwei Beispiele: Das Töpfereigebiet Heimberg-Steffisburg-Thun und die Tonwarenfabrik Ziegler in Schaffhausen. Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz, Mitteilungsblatt 106, 1991, 7–100.

Roth-Rubi/Schnyder/Egger u.a. 2000
Kathrin und Ernst Roth-Rubi/Rudolf Schnyder/Heinz und Kristina Egger u.a., Chacheli us em Bode… Der Kellerfund im Haus 315 in Nidfluh, Därstetten – ein Händlerdepot, Wimmis 2000.

Schwab 1921
Fernand Schwab, Beitrag zur Geschichte der bernischen Geschirrindustrie (Schweizer Industrie- und Handelsstudien 7), Weinfelden/Konstanz 1921.

Wyss 1966
Robert L. Wyss, Berner Bauernkeramik (Berner Heimatbücher 100-103), Bern 1966.