Baltic Sea room faiences
The collection of faiences from the Baltic Sea area is the centrepiece of the rooms for rococo art. Due to the donation by Axel Springer in 1997, the wide-ranging museum inventory enjoyed an enormous gain, now making it one of the largest and most significant faience collections in North Europe. The exhibition shows the full range of these pottery products. From table crockery and centrepieces up to a sailing ship in miniature format.
Intricately painted scenic and ornamental tea tables are a speciality. These were very popular amongst the nobles and in their surroundings. They stood for a new lifestyle. The reason is simple: Hot drinks with expensive ingredients from abroad became fashionable. And nobody wanted to place the hot cups with tea, coffee and chocolate on the varnished tables.
The “Bishops’ punch” invented in Denmark are a further speciality for the Protestant-influenced north. Vessels shaped as a bishop’s mitre from which the identically named, common punch in Europe was drunk - consisting of red wine, bitter orange or lemon and sugar. The abuse of liturgic head covering as a punch vessel and the drinking habits in connection with this drink can be ascribed to the Protestants’ resentments vis-à-vis Catholics.
Similarities in the form and decor of many faiences enable recognition of the cultural entity of the Baltic Sea region. Moreover, personal connections existed between the individual production facilities. The highly specialised and sought skilled workers - primarily the master craftsmen - moved from manufacture to manufacture, thus spreading their form and motif repertoire.
