Marieberg pottery

      Swedish pottery produced at the factory of Marieberg on the island of Kungsholmen, not far from Stockholm, from about 1759 until 1788. When the Marieberg factory, founded by Johann Eberhard Ludwig Ehrenreich, encountered financial difficulties in 1766, Ehrenreich was succeeded by the Frenchman Pierre Berthevin. In 1769 Berthevin left and Henrik Sten became director. In 1782 Marieberg was sold to its rival Rörstrand (Rörstrand faience), and in 1788 it closed.

      The Marieberg factory was famous particularly for its faience (tin-glazed earthenware) and porcelain. Unlike Rörstrand, Marieberg faience from the very beginning used brilliant overglaze colours. One of its specialties was a marbled glaze in unusual colours such as black, blue, violet, red, yellow, and brown. Transfer printing, which was introduced by Anders Stenman, who had come from Rörstrand, was mainly in evidence during the period when Sten was manager. The factory produced tureens with applied fruit and flowers. Its most original faience production, almost verging on the eccentric, is the Rococo (Rococo style) “terrace vase,” which is supposed to have been the creation of Ehrenreich himself; it is a vase decorated with applied flowers, standing on a base consisting of a flight of steps set on rocks, at the foot of which an animal (commonly a rabbit) was sometimes lying. Marieberg produced a cream-coloured earthenware, or creamware, called Flintporslin, which closely resembled that of Wedgwood.

      Porcelain was made at Marieberg for only about 20 years, from the time Pierre Berthevin became manager in 1766 until 1788. It is even more reminiscent of French porcelain than the faience produced by Marieberg during the same period, because Berthevin had come from the Mennecy factory, near Paris, which made a soft-paste porcelain of a particularly light and transparent quality, almost like milchglas. Soft-paste porcelain was made by Marieberg until 1777, when, with the help of Jacob Dortu, a hard-paste porcelain was produced.

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