Station: [14] Henry van de Velde: the Man and his Work in Bürgel

The Bürgel Ceramics Museum owns the largest publicly accessible collection of ceramics from designs by the artist Henry van de Velde. Here’s your opportunity to enjoy them.

In 1902, Henry van de Velde received a commission from the Grand Duke, instructing him to collect information on the artisanal industries in Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, specifically the level of their development and their needs. Over the next decade and a half, his style would prove a major influence on Bürgel ceramics.

Born in Antwerp in 1863, van de Velde had made a name for himself as a member of the Brussels-based group of artists known as “Les Vingt” – “the Twenty”. In 1897, furniture he had designed was shown at the International Art Exhibition in Dresden, which enhanced his reputation in Germany as elsewhere. His first visit to Bürgel followed five years later, and he played a major role in ensuring that Bürgel pottery was once again able to aspire to international standards.

Van de Velde supplied several ceramics workshops in Bürgel with designs and demonstration pieces of his own making, specifically Eberstein/Hohenstein, Neumann, Gebauer and Schack. Others may also have benefited. Essentially, all the firms were obliged to mark the pieces with a signet in the shape of a “V” – for “van de Velde”. However, only the firm of Eberstein/Hohenstein kept to this agreement. For other Bürgel makes from this period, catalogue entries provide evidence of van de Velde’s authorship of the designs. For a third group, the famous designer’s involvement can only be deduced from the shape of the pieces or the nature of the glazes.

Van de Velde’s work in the region was not confined to his role as a celebrity artist; he was also influential as a teacher and reformer on many levels. He founded a school of applied arts with a dedicated ceramics department, and was the school’s first and only director. By introducing lead-free glazes, he also significantly improved working conditions for the local potters. It’s worth noting that in 1880, ten of the 30 master potters were suffering from lead colic, and four had paralysed hands due to lead poisoning. What was known as “potters’ disease” – insidious lead poisoning mostly reflected in various lung complaints – was a permanent operational risk for potters. It was only thanks to van de Velde’s influence that the toxic fumes caused by firing were gradually eliminated from the workshops.

When van de Velde was forced to leave Germany due to the outbreak of the First World War, he went to Switzerland. His school of applied arts was shut down in 1915; the kiln was demolished and the inventory sold off. It was an irreversible break. After the war ended, some master potters in Bürgel tried to persuade artists working in the Art Nouveau style to return, but the attempts failed.

However, what lived on was the colour palette and the design idiom van de Velde had brought with him to Bürgel.