House y Garden 
GERMAN TILED STOVES AND THEIR MAKERS 
By HELENE ZOGBAUM 
T HE German pottery stove has proved an 
exception to the generally adopted rule 
of evolution. From early times it existed 
in a rude form, probably without enamel and 
bare of decoration, and continued so until in 
the sixteenth century, when it emerged from 
its chrysalis state and became the highest ex¬ 
pression of household art. Perhaps the secret 
of this unusually rapid development is to be 
found in the fact that the artists in certain 
favored portions of Germany and Austria in 
that renascent century were artisans as well 
as artists. Even in the darker days preced¬ 
ing the awakening of a love of work for the 
pleasure it gave, there must have been but 
little heed to that labor which yielded nought 
but gain. A dark¬ 
ness, which was more 
truly a latent light, 
suddenly changed to 
the brilliant illumina¬ 
tion of artistic feeling 
and creative power. 
Nuremberg especially 
felt the impetus of 
the new life, and the 
advance in art, litera¬ 
ture and science in 
the historic town was 
phenomenal. Here 
were first made and 
brought to perfection 
the porcelain stoves, 
as we know them 
from the many ex¬ 
quisite examples to 
be found in the castles 
and museums in Ger¬ 
many, Switzerland 
and Austria. In few 
localities are so many 
to be found as in that 
province of the latter 
country known as the 
Tyrol. Owing to the 
close bond between 
it and southern Ger¬ 
many, the works of the Nuremberg potters 
often found their way to the mountain terri¬ 
tory, where during the hard Alpine winters 
anything offering heat to the home was a 
welcome visitor. 
To German ears the name of Augustin 
Hirschvogel must have been almost a house¬ 
hold word. Born in Nuremberg, he lived the 
early part of his earnest life in the shadow of 
the old monuments ol that treasure-house of 
art. From his workshop were sent far and 
wide the great porcelain stoves that brought 
not only comfort to the body, but in their 
richness of color and design they were a 
delight to the mind. He was born in 1488. 
H is father, Veit Hirschvogel, was an artist of 
high abilities, and the 
son, from his earliest 
infancy, must have 
breathed the love of 
beautiful things, and 
though he afterwards 
followed his father’s 
trade of glass-paint¬ 
ing, he soon became 
celebrated for his 
porcelain tile stoves. 
The making of Stan¬ 
niferous enamel tiles, 
a composition of 
stone, sand and oxide 
of tin, hence its name, 
had long been known 
in northern Germany. 
Whether it was a 
spontaneous dis¬ 
covery, or whether 
the method was intro¬ 
duced by wandering 
Saracen workmen, 
historians have not 
yet been able to deter¬ 
mine, but in southern 
Germany the glazed 
tile was exclusively 
used, until Hirsch¬ 
vogel, through 
STOVE IN THE ROYAL PALACE AT NUREMBERG 
IOI 
