Maastricht earthenware decorations, 1836-1969 > Decorating

The Maastricht potteries carried a very broad range of products, consisting for a large part of simple, undecorated, white folk earthenware. From the start, though, they also made some of their products more attractive by decorating them. The oldest decorating method was hand painting.

Over the course of time the range of decorating techniques increased. Around 1840, for instance,  the print decoration technique was first applied in Maastricht. At the end of the nineteenth century this method reached its peak, in quality as well as quantity.

In the meantime, the Maastricht potteries had adopted a new way of decorating. The use of transfer prints or decalcomania was not only time-saving in the application of the decorations, but also made it possible to apply more detailed and multi-coloured images on the earthenware.

Already before the First World War, decorating with stencils had come into use. In the fifties the more industrial decoration method of silk-screening was developed.

These various techniques continued to be used simultaneously.

Read more about:
- Hand-painting
- Print designs
- Decalcomania
- Stencils
- Silk screen or screen print

Examples from this collection Maastricht earthenware decorations, 1836-1969

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