Lecture of the Bydgoszcz Academy of Art
The collection of the Wloclawek faïence in the collections of the Museum of the Kujawy and Dobrzyń Land consists of about 15,000 individual units. It presents a wealth of forms and decorations of Wloclawek products from 1873-1991. The largest collection of about 11,000 units consists of the products from 1945-1991. It presents characteristic periods of the history of post-war Polish design.
The years 1945-1952 were a period of reproduction of interwar (modernist) forms, and the production of patterns inspired by folklore.
The 1953-1965 period was the production of a faïence from the “Polish October” period. Of modern forms – original designs called “Picasso.” It is the production related to the activity of the Standardising Centre No. 2 at Włocławskie Zakłady Ceramiki Stołowej (Wloclawek Factory of Tableware), whose final date of activity is 1965. The end of the 1960s was a period of conversion of production to a “folk” faïence. This was accompanied by competitions, and, from 1973 to 1991, by the Wloclawek Faïence Biennial – a competition for the painted Wloclawek faïence. The operation of the factory ended in 1991 with the collapse of the factory and its final closure.
The aim of the presentation is to show the uniqueness and scale of the production of the Wloclawek faïence. Rich forms and decorations based on photographic documentation of objects. In addition, archival materials from museum collections will be presented – unique post-factory archives – templates of forms and decorations of manufactured products.
(Karolina Bandziak-Kwiatkowska, The Faïence Department of the Museum of the Kujawy and Dobrzyń Land in Wloclawek)
Karolina Bandziak-Kwiatkowska graduated from Historical Monuments and Conservation studies, and from Postgraduate Studies in the Conservation of Metal Monuments at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Nicolaus Copernicus University in Toruń. She has been working in museum institutions since 1999. Since 2010, she has been an assistant professor in the Faïence Department of the Museum of the Kujawy and Dobrzyń Land in Wloclawek. She is engaged in researching the history of Wloclawek faïence factories, design of Wloclawek faïence (from 1873 to 1991), and design employed by the Polish factories operating since the mid-19th century.