La céramique médiévale

Pottery in the Middle Ages

One of the problems of this time was the transport of food, its conservation and its cooking. Clay brought the solution. It’s easy to find it and to shape it and it hardens when put in the fire. On the other hand enamelling them with lead makes the pots waterproof.

In the showcase on the left you can see illuminations explaining the use of pieces of pottery for travelling, the transport of liquids, eating, drinking and the protection against diseases.

Between the 11th and 14th centuries we can follow the evolution of pottery:

The bottom of the pot is first convex (11th) then equipped with pinches (12+13th) and finally it gets 3 feet (14th). That ameliorates the cooking and saves fuel.

In the left corner of the showcase lies a fragment of a flute. In the right corner you can se 2 types of feeding bottles, marbles and a money box.

On the right they explain the making of varnish in the Middle-Ages. A piece of lead is hanging in a pot. There is vinegar inside this pot. The vapours of the vinegar crystallize the lead. The red lead crystals that you obtain are reduced to powder and mixed with water to obtain a yellow varnish. It becomes brown if you add iron oxide and green if you add copper oxide.

The pottery of Andenne in the Middle-Ages spread over an area corresponding to that of the Hansa i.e. from London to Bergen and Novgorod. (See wall map)

They also produced tiles. They were coloured and varnished. They were used as a luxury floor cover in castles and churches.

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