Wloclawek Faience

Faience works were established at Wloclawek from 1873 and grew into several factories that between them made this town the centre of Polish decorative earthenware for a century. The style people recognise is the mid-twentieth-century one: bowls, jugs and plates in cream or blue-grey with a hand-painted cobalt design of stylised flowers and leaves, brushed on quickly and freely so no two pieces match, produced in enormous quantities in the 1950s to 1970s and present in most Polish kitchens of the period. It has since become collectable, with prices for good pieces well above what they were sold for. The last of the big works closed in the 2000s and production now continues at a small scale. The district museum at Wloclawek holds the reference collection, several thousand pieces covering the whole history, and the town has a Gothic cathedral and an escarpment above the Vistula and its dam.

What you actually see

• Cobalt on cream - hand-brushed floral designs, no two pieces alike.
• A century of production - works running here from 1873 into the 2000s.
• The museum collection - several thousand pieces covering the whole history.
• A collectors' market - good pieces now worth well above their original price.

When to go

All year. Half a day.

Honest expectations

The big factories are closed - this is a museum subject with small-scale production alongside. Much sold as Wloclawek faience is later or imitation. The museum closes on Mondays. The town is otherwise industrial.

Nearby

Torun is fifty kilometres north-west; Plock is upstream.