Cechovní symbolika a pracovní motivy na keramice 17.-19. století ze sbírky Etnografického ústavu Moravského zemského muzea v Brně

Guild symbolism was an established type of ceramic decoration from the second half of the 17th century until the mid–19th century. Guilds were represented by a variety of objects: treasuries, ferrules, seals, vessels, standards, funeral shields, and candles with guild emblems consisting of symbols of the particular craft (tools, final products and materials used). The basic forms of guild emblems, derived from aristocratic coats of arms, were the seals used for stamping official documents. The same schemata also featured on ceramic objects, either guild ewers or objects manufactured for individual craftsmen. The collection of folk ceramics in the Ethnographic Institute of the Moravian Provincial Museum, Brno contains over three hundred items that feature guild symbolism and labour motifs rendered as figurative scenes. The majority of the surviving objects with guild symbolism were made of faience. The oldest known examples were produced by the Anabaptists in the second half of the 17th century and at the beginning of the 18th century. They were commissioned by wealthy burghers such as cloth-manufacturers, millers and butchers, as well as by cask-makers, weavers, dressmakers, furriers, shoemakers and potters. In the 18th century and the first half of the 19th century, images of people at work started to appear, especially motifs of ploughmen, shepherds, peasants on wagons and also craftsmen such as carpenters, shoemakers and barrel-makers. Products with craft emblems trace the development of material culture and provide insight into economic and social matters in past centuries, as well as placing ceramic output in wider cultural and historical contexts.