Mirage of luxury? : Falke-Group pottery from the bordenland of Silesia, Lusatia, Brandenburg and Greater Poland

Abstract

Late medieval highly decorated Falke-Group stoneware, produces most likely in Lusatia, have been considered by scholars as a luxury product. More than a hundred fragment have been found in today’s territory of Lubuskie voivodship, which in the turn of Late Middle Ages and Early Modern period was the borderland between Silesia, Lusatia, Brandenburg and Greater Poland. The analysis of the pieces from this area point to production in several different workshops, manufacturing also earthenware imitations. The context of analysed fragments indicate that they were used not only by aristocracy, nobility and clergy, but also aspiring burghers and possibly richer inhabitants of rural areas.