Ceramic handbell

Unknown artist

Ceramic handbell on display in the shop at Chopina 57 Street in Włocławek, offering, among others, traditional Wloclawek faience.Hand-decorated ceramics according to original, recognizable designs by artists from Włocławek was especially popular in Poland in the 1970s. The faience factory in Włocławek was opened in 1873. It mainly produced kitchen utensils. At that time, the first attempts to decorate products with multi-colored floral motifs were introduced.After the Second World War, the factory renewed the production of hand-made and painted fine tin-glazed pottery, which became extremely fashionable in the seventies. The artists employed there created original designs. At that time, series in cobalt, brown and purple were created. This production was closed in 1990.After years of break, the new owners, Ewa and Jerzy Szanowski, started this activity in 2002, returning to the traditional production and manual painting of faience products, introducing new forms and decorative motifs. In 2021, after the collapse caused by the lockdowns related to the COVID-19 pandemic, they decided to shut down. In June 2021, the company was taken over by the new owner, Tyberiusz Rajs, who decided to maintain the tradition and develop the production of Wloclawek faience. In July 2021, production was resumed.The style of hand-made and decorated faience products is also continued by local craftsmen.