Grey-blue sheen, incised patterns, solid shapes: Westerwald stoneware was once a global export hit - beautiful, useful or curious. The exhibition at sam - Stadtmuseum am Markt brings hidden objects from the depot to light and shows how clay became culture.

The so-called "Kannenbäckerland" in the Westerwald is one of the oldest production centers in Europe. Since the Middle Ages, craftsmen have been shaping jugs, jars, figurines and storage vessels here - many of them for everyday use, some as artistically designed individual pieces. In the region around Wiesbaden, stoneware shaped the economy, customs and the image of home.

Some of its qualities made Westerwald stoneware unique for a long time: high breaking strength, dimensionally stable cooling - perfect conditions for mineral water bottles and lard pots, as they are still known today.

Historical stoneware meets poetic imagery: in the exhibition, the pieces enter into a dialogue with photographs by Eckart Bartnik, who shows the region's clay pits as colorful, almost surreal-looking landscapes.

A varied accompanying program invites visitors to rediscover the material, history and creative power.

Admission to the special exhibition is six euros and four euros concessions.

A brochure will be published to accompany the exhibition, which can be purchased at sam or ordered by email from October 2025.