A Westerwald stoneware jug

At the end of the 16th century a major group of potteries making stoneware was established in the Westerwald, an area of the Rhineland close to the town of Koblenz. This jug is typical of the elaborate jugs produced there in the period c. 1600-25. It is decorated with a mix of impressed, rouletted and applied decoration, with patches of cobalt blue painting. Such treatment must have been time-consuming, and in later years the Westerwald potteries abandoned such work in favour of quicker results.

Acknowledgments: RAM Museum Exeter Archaeology