Baroque Dreams

The museum of Jever accomodates a valuable baroque collection of ceramic pieces called fayences from Zerbst and Jever that reflect the life of the times.

Porcelain reached the European market with the establishment of trade relations to China in the 16th century, and aroused a passion for this new material. The initial inability to produce porcelain in Europe led to a flourishing heyday of fayence ceramics.

At first, Chinese porcelain consituted a much sought after collector's item, a rare exoticum in the art and curiosity cabinets of the princely courts. Soon, however, fayences were also collected as representative pieces of decoration and as complete dinner services. The production of fayences quickly became a lucrative business. The producers of Delft in the Netherlands specialized in the imitation of Chinese porcelain. The success of the Dutch fayence producers led to the foundation of fayence workshops, especially in the 18th century. Among them were the workshops in Zerbst and Jever. However, only a few pieces of their production have been preserved to this day.
(Übersetzung: Isabella Erb)