Ethnographic Institute of the Moravian Museum, Brno
August 19, 2025 Next stop on the SSHRC funded research tour was Brno, Czech Republic. The tour began with a pivotal visit to the Ethnographic Institute of the Moravian Museum, housed in the Palace of Noble Ladies. “The Palace of Noble Ladies, used as a charity facility for derelict noble and burgher young women, was erected in 1682–1690 by the important Baroque architect Jan Křtitel Erna. In the interior a chapel with Baroque frescos has been conserved from that time. In the 1950s, the famous architect Bohuslav Fuchs reconstructed the building, damaged by bombing during the war, for museum purposes.”
Here we met with Alena Kalinová, curator of folk ceramic, sculpture, and painting on glass at the Moravian Museum. She generously devoted an entire day to us (me and my husband Michael who is the volunteer recorder/photographer for the project) showing us the entire collection of 7,000 plus pieces housed on the premises. Rows and rows of display cases are lined up in the hallways documenting the history of maiolica production in Moravia, starting with a stunning collection of Anabaptist/Haban ceramics, which inspired the lasting fascination with low-fire earthenware and painting with oxides on maiolica in Moravia, a folk tradition still being practiced there today.
We took hundreds of photos of the collection at the Moravian Museum, and even had the great pleasure of handling some of the works and photographing them in a photo booth set up in Alena’s office. Although I already knew that the quality of the Anabaptist/Haban ceramics was high and the standard for production rigorous, it wasn’t until I was able to touch the works, feel the weight, examine them on all sides, and inspect the bottoms and rims that I realized how exquisitely they are made. The throwing skills are top-notch and the surface techniques, including painting with oxides on the raw maiolica glaze, and employing marbling and spattering techniques, match the great expertise of the throwing skills.
Alena toured us through the vaults and pulled out special examples of historical pieces, including the oldest object in their collection, a broken shallow dish made by Anabaptist/Haban potters. We also saw exquisite examples of marbled and splattered pots, including the iconic streaky poured green glaze.
August 20, 2025 The Ethnographic Museum of the Moravian Museum warranted a second visit. After spending a whole day with Alena Kalinová in the vaults of the museum we went back to see the displays of the permanent collection, including a special exhibition curated by Alena and her colleagues. The following photos show a small part of the collection with a focus on Anabaptist/Haban ceramics, however there were many cultural artifacts in the exhibition that fascinated us and merited being documented. Of note is a “contemporary” piece made by Jan Koula in the early 20th century, a small ceramic box, open at the top, glazed in a deep blue maiolica and painted with two of the traditional Haban colours, white and yellow. This piece was inspired by Anabaptist maiolica (faience). This was the first time I encountered a Haban-informed piece that was not a copy of a historic form, but rather an artist’s innovative interpretation of Anabaptist/Haban ceramics, using its traditional colours and technique (label info below).
Jardiniere with decoration inspired by Anabaptist faience
White earthenware
Designed by Jan Koula (1855–1919)
Tele Painting Workshop, Telc. Jihlava district
Early 20th century
Moravian Gallery, Brno
August 20, 2025 (continued) The next stop of the day was the Museum of Applied Arts of the Moravian Gallery in Brno, focussed on exhibiting a mix of historical and contemporary works.
Here we visited the Black Depo (the museum vaults and storage facilities are called depos). The visual feast provided by seeing literally thousands of pieces of ceramics displayed in a darkened room with black walls and glass cases stacked upon glass cases was simply astounding. My photos focus primarily on the Anabaptist/Haban forms in the display, however the Black Depo exposes the entirety of the ceramic and glass history of Moravia. This way of displaying permanent ceramic collections in Europe appears to be a trend. It means that the visitor is able to see all of it, however it also means working hard to focus and ingest it all. Navigating the labelling is also a challenge. In this case there is a very well thought out and easy-to-use database that corresponds to each piece in the cases.
I have included images of two yellow pieces of faux wood grain ceramics made in Holíč at a factory founded in 1743 by Francis of Lorainne, consort of Empress Maria Teresia – the Holíč factory in Slovakia followed the tradition of the Haban ceramic workshops which existed here before and produced low-fired tin-glazed ware, and made use of the skills of the Habaners. The Holíč factory (Holitscher Fayencemanufaktur) closed in 1827.
The temporary exhibition of contemporary ceramics at the Moravian Gallery titled Made by Fire was absolutely spectacular and it also warrants a series of images. I find the innovative display strategies especially intriguing.
