The Offenbach faiences

Faience already existed in ancient times. Faience is a porcelain-like clay ceramic that was coated with a colored or white opaque glaze and was much cheaper than real porcelain.
This utilitarian pottery was usually painted with floral motifs. Faience production came to Spain with the Arabs. The Balearic Islands, especially Mallorca, imported it to Italy. Named after the city of Faenza in Italy, it spread throughout Europe from the Renaissance onwards.

The admiration for the shimmering vessels with the radiant decoration was not without reason: the secret knowledge of the production of this white and velvety smooth glaze coating had only slowly reached the regions north of the Alps. In the course of religious disputes in the 16th century, Italian potters had left their homeland and emigrated to France, the German-speaking countries and the Netherlands.

Faience production came to our region via the Netherlands: faience had been produced there since the 16th century and in Delft since the 17th century as an imitation of Chinese porcelain. From 1661, faience manufactories were established in the Rhine-Main region under the influence of Delft, first in Hanau, then also in Heusenstamm, Frankfurt am Main, Offenbach, Höchst, Rückingen, Kelsterbach, Flörsheim and Wiesbaden. The mutual artistic influence in the Rhine-Main region soon led to the faience painters relocating.

Asian porcelain was too expensive for the sovereigns in the 17th/18th century, which is why concessions and privileges to establish faience factories and manufactories were generously granted. Traditional decorative motifs were transferred or combined in new ways. Jugs, jugs and cups were produced in Offenbach.

Even ordinary people were able to purchase these artistically painted everyday objects. This made it possible to enjoy hot drinks such as coffee, tea or cocoa from porcelain-like drinking vessels. An independent German faience production emerged, whose products still stand for the quality of this former handicraft today.

Faience is the name given to ceramic products that belong to the earthenware category due to their porous body - the fired, unglazed base material of ceramics. The raw materials for faience production are slurried clays; quartz and lime are added as leaning and fluxing agents.

After drying, a first firing (biscuit firing) is carried out at a temperature of between 800° C and 1000° C. Once fired, objects are coated with an aqueous glaze. The glaze, made from quartz, soda, potash, calcite and lead oxide, contains tin oxide as an opacifier. Porcelain-like opaque white or colored tin glazes on a porous red to light yellow firing body are the hallmark of faience. The decoration is painted onto the dried, unfired glaze with hot-fire paints¹. This is followed by a second firing (glost firing) between 950° C and 1100° C.

Muffle colors², which offer a richer range of colors, are applied to the molten glaze and fired in an additional firing (muffle firing) between 550° C and 750° C.

The Offenbach faience manufactory produced a wide range of utensils and everyday objects. Faience was produced in a simple style, in elaborate designs and paintings and in various sizes.

The factory mark "OFF" on the faience served to exclude competition and at the same time promoted the company's own products. In some cases, painter's initials and, from 1816, the new administrative affiliation of Hesse-Darmstadt were added to the factory mark. Johannes Klepper, who ran the manufactory in Kleine Kirchgasse (Schulstraße) together with his brother Carl Wilhelm from 1775 to 1783, suffered from competition from the manufacturers of finer goods in Kelsterbach and Flörsheim, for example. A six-year privilege to be the sole supplier to the church fairs and markets in the surrounding area was therefore granted in 1777.

_______________________________________________________________

OFF = Offenbach faience factory
L = Johann Jacob Lay
HD = Hesse-Darmstadt

Explanation:
¹ Hot-firing colors are underglaze colors that can withstand high temperatures. They are applied to faience and porcelain before glaze firing, form a close bond with the body during firing and are protected from abrasion and chipping by the glaze. They were mainly used until the 18th century, as the range of colors is fairly limited (antimony or ochre yellow, iron orange, cobalt blue, chrome or copper oxide green and manganese violet or red).


² Muffle colors are also called onglaze or overglaze colors. Muffle colors chip more easily; nevertheless, they have been used since the 18th century because the entire color palette is available. Enamel colors also belong to the muffle colors. It is a colorant made from ground glass to which metal oxides have been added for coloring.

Until the 17th century, living rooms were furnished with a few individual pieces: Wardrobe, bed, table, chair, chest. In the 18th century, the French-oriented lifestyle demanded new pieces of furniture: Sofa, armchair, chest of drawers. The furniture was now subject to a uniform design and formed sets.

In addition to the new home furnishings, decorative household items, crockery, cutlery and table decorations became a necessity. Several identical examples of each model were required. The repetition of the tableware shape and painting resulted in a service. The production of many identical shapes and patterns suited the production methods of the manufactories.

The kitchen was not only used for cooking, it was also an everyday living room. The furnishings were simple and functional. Crockery was stored on open shelves and thus also served to decorate the room. Faience decorated with popular sayings and wisdom could be bought cheaply or obtained at fairs.

The different materials of the household and kitchen vessels provide information about their use:

• Glass
  • Simple glass bottles and drinking vessels were accessible to broad sections of the population
• Pottery
  • Simple and inexpensive pottery was used as serving and cooking vessels, for storage and as cheap tableware.
• Stoneware
  • Hard and waterproof stoneware was used to keep food and liquids cool. It was unsuitable as cookware.
• Faience
  • Coffee and tableware, tea sets, jugs and bowls were made from this substitute porcelain.
• Earthenware
  • Earthenware, which was easier and cheaper to produce, replaced faience as tableware.
• Porcelain
  • Porcelain, which was easy to clean and better able to withstand wear and tear, was a sought-after item in middle-class households at the end of the 18th century.
• Metal
  • Metal cooking pots, kettles and jugs were more expensive than pottery and were therefore mainly used by wealthy families.
• Wood
  • Wooden vessels were once widely used, but were pushed aside by other materials and remained the tableware of poor people.

Before the 18th century, the main diet consisted of cereal products, vegetables and pulses, which were prepared as porridge, mush or stews. Bread, dairy products and meat supplemented the meals. Water, buttermilk and sometimes beer or wine were drunk. Hot drinks were unknown.

Due to the commercial development of the cities, growing populations and poor harvests, food became increasingly scarce in the 18th century, resulting in famine. Bread and the potato, imported from America, became the basis of nutrition.

Coffee, initially a luxury item for feudal-bourgeois society, was now - mixed with substitutes - a cheap popular drink and often a hasty substitute for hot meals.

While the working population of the cities struggled against hunger, the nobility and the upper middle classes took their cue from the lifestyle of the French court. A lavish dining culture developed. Sumptuous food preparations and several courses were enjoyed at a leisurely pace.

As the menus became more refined, so did the eating habits. While the common people continued to eat from a common bowl with a spoon, knives and forks were also used in courtly and wealthy bourgeois circles. The new food and drink required new tableware.

In 1602, the East India Trading Company was founded in Holland. It imported Chinese porcelain to Europe by sea. It became a precious collector's item for princes; magnificent porcelain cabinets were created in stately homes.

Tea, coffee and drinking chocolate had only been known in Europe since the early 17th century, initially as a medicine, then as a luxury and luxury item. There was no suitable tableware for hot drinks in Europe. Metal burnt your lips, glass shattered, wood affected the taste and earthenware was difficult to clean. Porcelain vessels were ideal for enjoying hot drinks.

China and Japan were exemplary in the development of vessel shapes: jug, cup, can. In the mid-17th century, tea sets were specifically ordered and drawings and wooden models of European shapes were sent to Asia.

As only rich people could afford the expensive porcelain, attempts were made in Europe to imitate the foreign products on a clay basis. Faience came closest to porcelain in terms of appearance and use. Delft (Holland) developed into the center of faience production.

MENU OF AN ORPHANAGE 1790:


Sundays:

At noon: Thick barley barley soup
½ pound of good coarse flour (rye flour) and
bread by no means baked from crushed grain
In the evening: ½ pound of bread
1 quart (950 ml) of good thin beer

Mondays:

At lunchtime: Unnoble flour soup made from clear flour
Lentils or groats
½ pound of bread
Evening: ½ pound of bread
1 quart of thin beer

Tuesdays:

Lunchtime: A tin bowl full of thick boiled pure peas
½ pound of bread
Evening: ½ pound of bread
1 quart of thin beer

Wednesdays:

At noon: good and sufficient buckwheat groats
½ pound of bread
Evening: ½ pound of bread
1 quart of thin beer

Thursday:

Lunchtime: turnips or cabbage
½ pound of bread
Evening: ½ pound of bread
1 quart of thin beer

Fridays:

At noon: flour bread, which must never be too thin
½ pound of bread
Evening: ½ pound of bread
1 quart of thin beer

Saturdays:

Lunchtime: lentils or buckwheat groats
½ pound of bread
Evening: ½ pound of bread
1 quart of thin beer


SUGGESTED MENU FOR A HOUSEHOLD OF RICH BURGHERS, 1727:

First course:

Soup
Breast of veal stew
Boiled leg of mutton with cauliflower

served in smaller portions:
Hare pepper
marrow pudding
steamed eel
Steamed carp
Pigeon pupton (a kind of hot pie)
Roast pork

Second course:

Partridges and quails
Lobster
Almond cheesecake and egg cream

served in smaller portions:
Mutton testicles
apricots baked in batter
sturgeon
fried sole
green peas
preserved pigeons

In 1700, Offenbach had 800 inhabitants.

During the 18th century, the rural community developed into an important commercial town. It owed its growth to its convenient location, the economic policy of the Lords of Isenburg-Birstein and the industriousness of the working population.

Interested in local production, which made them independent of expensive imports, the lords encouraged the establishment of new businesses. Huguenot religious refugees settled in Offenbach. Numerous Jewish merchants and traders were welcomed. Frankfurt merchants founded the first factories in Offenbach.

A bourgeoisie had developed from the originally peasant population. Craftsmen and entrepreneurs formed a new population structure. Over 50 factories were established. The trade gained supra-regional economic importance. Concerts, theater performances and balls were at the center of Offenbach's intellectual and cultural development.

In 1800, Offenbach had a population of around 6,000.

Until the introduction of the German mark currency in 1871, the florin currency, which was exchangeable in Frankfurt and Hesse, was used as a means of payment in Offenbach.

1 guilder = 60 Kreuzer
1 Kreuzer = 4 Heller

What was earned per month?

In the faience manufactory:

Höchst 1764 Mosbach 1772

*arcanum (Latin for secret apprenticeship), who knew the secret of making faience, porcelain, glass etc.
** they tried with little painterly effort to make faience more splendid, to "decorate" it.

Other professions: in Offenbach

in Frankfurt

The factory owner was the owner of the workshops, tools, raw materials and finished products. He was responsible for the management of the business and the sale of goods. The factory workers contributed their labor and craftsmanship to the production process.

High quantities and consistent quality of the goods required a division of labor in the manufactory. The end product was no longer made by one person. By specializing in certain tasks in the production process, the manufactory worker became increasingly dependent on the entrepreneur.

Objects that could not be turned on the potter's wheel were modeled (figures) or assembled from clay slabs (writing utensils). Relief decoration was created by pressing clay into a decorative model (mold). Moulds were produced by master modellers or bossiers (formers). The use of decorative models replaced manual modeling work and accelerated mass production.

The price of a faience was based on its size and decoration. Ordinary people bought unpainted or simply decorated, inexpensive wares. Wealthy citizens could afford elaborately painted, expensive faience. Custom-made items were often marked with the initials of the person who commissioned them.

Parts of the production process were often combined in one house.

First floor: The clay kneading machine is driven by a horse, another horse turns the glaze mills, day laborers heat the kiln under the supervision of the burner, painters and glaziers sit in the next room.

Middle floor: turnery, a worker places a board with moldings on a shelf to dry.

Upper floor: Tile production in wooden frames, the tiles are removed from the molds and air-dried on shelves.

Rich clay deposits in the surrounding area, the proximity to the trade fair and commercial city of Frankfurt, the convenient location on the River Main as well as tax and private freedoms in the Principality of Isenburg-Birstein were decisive factors in Philipp Friedrich Lay's decision to establish a faience manufactory in Offenbach.

The market ship traveled daily between the Isenburg royal seat of Offenbach and the Free Imperial City of Frankfurt. The sales market for Offenbach faience in "neighboring countries" was quick and easy to reach.

"Domestic" sales took place via markets and the peddler trade. Intermediaries ensured sales in surrounding towns and communities. Grocers and peddlers traveled the countryside and offered their goods to the rural population of the principality.

A privilege, which was intended to guarantee exclusive production rights, protected the manufacturer against competition in the principality. Attempts were made to eliminate "foreign" competition through import bans, but it nevertheless dominated the markets early on. Manufactories that were able to work more efficiently and sell more cheaply expanded their sales area beyond the borders of their own regions.

1. 1661-1806 HanauLandgraviate of Hesse-Kassel
2. 1662-1666 Heusenstamm County of Schönborn
3. 1666-1772 Frankfurt Free Imperial City
4. 1739-(after) 1829 Offenbach Principality of Isenburg-Birstein, from 1816 Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt
5. 1746-1758 HöchstElectorate of Mainz
6. 1752- ?Rückingen County of Isenburg-Büdingen
7. 1758-ca.1835 Kelsterbach Landgraviate / Grand Duchy of Hesse-Darmstadt
8. 1765-1922 FlörsheimElectorate of Mainz, from 1802 Duchy of Nassau, from 1866 Prussia
9. 1770-1797 Wiesbaden Principality of Nassau-Usingen

Manufacture (from the Latin manu facere = to make by hand) is a pre-industrial trade involving manual labor. In the manufactory of the 17th/18th century, the production process was characterized by specialization, division of labour, serial production and minimal use of machines. Administration and production were separated for the first time.

Manufactories were used for the rational production of goods that could not be handled technically or artistically by craftsmen. Initially, luxury items (tapestries, faience, porcelain) and later consumer goods (wax lights, fabrics, sewing needles) were produced. The workers in the manufactories were not organized in guilds.

Linguistic usage in the 18th century made no distinction between manufactory and factory. "Fabriques" were understood as places of production and workshops. They are not comparable with the mechanized large-scale operations of the industrial age.

The transition from manufactory to industry was fluid in the first half of the 19th century. The manufactory system can still be found today in the porcelain industry and in arts and crafts.

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Mercantilism (French mercantile = commercial) refers to the economic theory and practice of the 17th/18th century in Europe. The starting point was the financial needs of the absolutist states (keeping the court, maintaining the army, administration).

In line with the aim of the private merchant, the state's economic policy aimed to achieve an active balance of trade. The state's power and wealth were to be promoted by largely restricting the import of goods (monetary expenditure) and increasing exports (monetary income). The means of trade policy were export premiums, import bans and protective tariffs.

Mercantilist measures were aimed at increasing the population, promoting industry (manufactories) and, in agriculture, strengthening small farms.

Businesses were primarily supported by the middle classes. The producer financed and received privileges and protection from competitors from the sovereign. Mercantilism led to the economic rise of the bourgeoisie.

=> Philipp Friedrich Lay, *1684 +1766
active from 1739 to 1765

Philipp Friedrich Lay came from a farming family from Wallrabenstein near Idstein in the Taunus.

From 1706, he trained at the Frankfurt faience manufactory. In 30 years, he rose from worker to tenant (1732-1736) and director of the company. In 1736 he moved to the Hanau manufactory as a distiller.

In 1739, the faience manufacturer Philipp Friedrich Lay bought a farm in Offenbach's Kirchgasse to establish a faience manufactory. He financed the purchase price of 23,500 guilders with bonds. In the same year, the sovereign Count Wolfgang Ernst II zu Isenburg-Birstein granted him the privilege of producing faience, which secured him trading privileges as well as tax and private freedoms for his family and employees.

Various samples of raw materials proved that the "Büdinger Sand", which was also used by the Hanau manufactory, was particularly suitable for mixing glaze.

The Hanau manufacturer Hieronymus von Alphen resisted the use of the Büdingen sand pit by the rival company. Despite this, Lay was granted "permission to freely extract sand in the Offenbach area" by the sovereign in 1741.

Under his management, with the support of his wife Eva and sons Georg Heinrich and Johann Jacob, the business grew.

The Offenbach faience manufactory increasingly became a threat to the older Hanau company. Offenbach was closer to Frankfurt and could sell its goods more quickly at the markets and trade fairs of the commercial city. The Hanau manufactory was forced to set up warehouses in Frankfurt.

After several unsuccessful faience firings - the glaze cracked - the production costs exceeded the income and Lay was unable to pay his debts.
The lenders sued him, the manufactory was confiscated and production ceased.

In 1744, the Frankfurt merchant Isaac de Bassompierre acquired the property. As a tenant, Lay resumed faience production using new techniques.

In 1765, 81-year-old Lay and his son Johann Jacob were called to Kelsterbach to expand the faience manufactory. He received a monthly wage of 50 guilders as a master - Johann Jacob 16 guilders as a journeyman.

Philipp Friedrich Lay was last mentioned in the Kelsterbach payroll on October 31, 1766.

=> Georg Heinrich Lay, *1731 +1802
active from 1762 to 1765

He was born as the first child and son of Philipp Friedrich Lay and Eva Lay. He was granted Frankfurt citizenship at the age of 20. It was not until 11 years later - on April 28, 1762 - that his father transferred the management of the manufactory to him.

Although the manufacturing privilege was reconfirmed by Prince Wolfgang Ernst II, he only continued to run the manufactory for three years, as competition from the founding of a faience manufactory in Flörsheim in 1765 made the Offenbach company unprofitable.

Flörsheim produced and sold its goods much more cheaply, as it had the financial support of the Carthusian monastery in Mainz. Georg Heinrich Lay sold the manufacturing privilege in 1765 and moved to Frankfurt.

=> Johann Christoph Puschel,
active from 1765 to 1775

In December 1765, Johann Christoph Puschel from Frankfurt, the previous owner of a rapeseed mill in Offenbach, acquired the faience manufacturing privilege.

In order to make the company competitive again, the buildings had to be renovated and the courtyard extended. Well-known artists were brought to Offenbach, including the painter Louis Victor Gerverot from France.

Gerverot was also known as a potter and arcanist (the secret keeper of special ceramic techniques). He worked in several German faience, earthenware and porcelain manufactories and improved their technical equipment.

Puschel was not a trained faience manufacturer and was therefore unable to promote his company professionally and compete with the Flörsheim manufactory. The Offenbach faience manufactory on the Bassompierre estate was forced to close.

Issac de Bassompierre had owned the Offenbach faience manufactory since 1744 and got into financial difficulties due to unsuccessful metal speculation. Having already sold his houses in Frankfurt, he sold the Offenbach estate with the closed faience manufactory in Kirchgasse to Prince Wolfgang Ernst II zu Isenburg-Birstein for 23,500 guilders in 1775.

Offenbach's first comedy house was built on this site.

=> Johannes Klepper,
active from 1775 to 1783

In addition to Johann Christoph Puschel's manufactory, there was another one set up by a certain Koch in Kleine Kirchgasse - today Schulstraße. Nothing else is known about this manufactory.

Johannes Klepper bought this "Kochische porcellan-Fabrique" in 1775 and ran it together with his brother Carl Wilhelm. Klepper also had difficulties due to the competition from Kelsterbach and Flörsheim, as the up-and-coming middle classes preferred the finer wares of these manufactories, but he only produced simple consumer goods.

He therefore applied for a privilege on July 2, 1777, which would entitle him to be the sole supplier of faience for gaming and dice tables at church fairs and markets in the surrounding area. This privilege was granted to him on 08.08.1777 - albeit for a limited period of 6 years.

At this time, sales of Offenbach faience were limited to the rural population of the neighboring communities to the south and the Vogelsberg regions of the Principality of Isenburg.

=> J. W. Klaumann,
active from 1783 until after 1789

The Klepper business was acquired by Johann Wilhelm Klaumann in 1783.

Surviving lists of goods and prices from this manufactory provide information about its extensive product range.

In addition to the sales areas of his predecessor Klepper, Klaumann also supplied Frankfurt merchants.

Robust English earthenware and porcelain made in Germany increasingly replaced the original function of delicate faience as a porcelain substitute. The end of this branch of trade was foreseeable.

In Offenbach, the faience manufactory took a back seat to the up-and-coming companies (tobacco, carriage and textile industries).

=> Mr. Philipp,
active from 1787 until after 1795

Although faience was in decline as tableware, the manufacturer Philipp founded another faience manufactory in Offenbach in 1787. The Offenbach industrial genealogy shows the location of the company in Biergrund.

The faience manufacturer Philipp is mentioned for the last time in 1795 in seventh place in a "Directory of all the food manufacturers of the first class and trades established here".

=> F. de Roussier,
active around 1794 until after 1796

Captain Friedrich de Roussier is named as the owner of the Offenbach faience manufactory in Kleine Kirchgasse (now Schulstraße) until September 1796. De Roussier was able to finance the purchase of the manufactory by taking out loans.

French troops had occupied Frankfurt. The unrest of the war also brought de Roussier into economic difficulties. He was forced to lease the manufactory to his previous managing director Catharina Heyder.

=> C. Heyder,
active from 1796 to around 1800

Catharina Heyder had taken over the manufactory from Friedrich de Roussier as tenant. The following announcement was published in the "Samstägige Frankfurter Kaiserliche Reichs-Ober-Post-Amts-Zeitung" on November 26, 1796:

"Catharina Heyder, former manager of the faience factory in Offenbach, has taken over the same. She will take care that the previous friends and patrons will be promoted in their orders, as much as it can be, as quickly and as requested."

=>Engelbert Pfülb,
active from 1800 to around 1813

Catharina Heyder married Engelbert Pfülb. He took over the management of the business. The manufactory continued under the name Pfülb.

Records from 1802 mention eight workers who worked in the business alongside family members. Faience production experienced a new upswing.

The company attached great importance to artistically fine design, elegant shapes and decorations. The Pfülbsche Manufaktur accepted many private commissions. However, stoneware was also produced to meet the demand for robust everyday tableware.

Engelbert Pfülb died in 1813.

=> Catharina Pfülb,
active from 1813 to around 1829

After the death of her husband Engelbert Pfülb, Catharina Pfülb, née Heyder, continued to run the manufactory alone.

In 1817, during a time of general economic crisis, she tried unsuccessfully to sell the property at auction.

With the introduction of freedom of trade in 1821, Offenbach traders offered fine, inexpensive French and English earthenware. The production of faience tableware became unprofitable. It restricted production, but continued to train apprentices. Faience and earthenware were produced in the Offenbach manufactory until after 1829.

In 1833, the city of Offenbach acquired the property in Kleine Kirchgasse (now Schulstraße) for 9,000 guilders and set up the first public pawnshop there.