The ceramics museum "La Rajoleta" in Esplugues de Llobregat preserves a reduction kiln for firing the metallic glazes of lustreware. Once part of the Pujol i Bausis factory, the kiln was used during the period of Modernisme. The museum built a reproduction of the kiln in 2009 with the support of the Barcelona Provincial Council, with the intention of producing lustreware once again.
Metallic glazing is a painstakingly laborious technique based on traditions and secrets handed down over the years. A combination of metal oxides and nitrates plus fluxes are brushed onto a ceramic surface. Each piece then receives three firings: the third (reduction) firing produces the lustre. Colours mimic copper, silver or gold. Islamic in origin, the process was preserved thanks to Moorish roots until new fashions and high costs led to its decline.
Enthusiasm for lustreware recovered in the nineteenth century, however, as pieces were acquired by collectors all over Europe. At the same time, the architects of Modernisme took an interest in reviving production. Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner journeyed together to the town of Manises to learn the secrets of potters there. Architectural cladding soon began to show the golden tones of tiles made at the Pujol i Bausis factory, a well-known manufacturer of lustreware at the time. Applications can be seen on the Casa Amatller in Barcelona, by Josep Puig i Cadafalch, and on the Comillas Seminary near Santander, by Domènech i Montaner. Among the significant objects manufactured were reproductions of jars from the Alhambra and other Nazarite designs from the fifteenth century.
At the 30th Meeting of Collectors of Catalan and Antique Ceramics on 16 May 2010, the pieces fired in the kiln the previous day were on display. The new ceramics are expected to emerge with the same glaze quality as the factory´s originals.

Marta Saliné i Perich
Conservator, Museu Can Tinturé, Esplugues de Llobregat

www.museucantinture.org