PORCELAIN HISTORY

The first successful attempt at porcelain production in Bohemia was made in 1789 in Háje (Rabensgrün), 4 km away from Horní Slavkov (Schlaggenwald). But the factory was a failure, and so the porcelain factory in Horní Slavkov initiated in 1792 by Georg Paulus is said to be the first Bohemian porcelain factory. 

Several years later, the retired mine foreman sold his manufactory to Louise Sophie Greiner, widow of a porcelain fabricant from Gera. After her death, her son-in-law, medical doctor Georg Lippert, took over the other family members’ parts and expanded the business together with his partner Wenzl Haas, trading under the name Lippert & Haas as of 1808. After Lipperts death in the second half of the 19th century, the Haas family took over the whole company, which from 1867 was directed by Georg Haas and his Cousin Johann Cžjžek. In the following 20 years, Haas & Czjzek became Bohemia’s biggest porcelain producer. Both factory owners received titles of nobility during the Austrian-Hungarian Monarchy. They were also the first in Bohemia to establish a support fund for the disabled, widows and orphans as well as a pension fund. 

The company was nationalized after 1945. In the 1980s, the Horní Slavkov factory was temporarily part of national factory Karlovarský porcelán. After privatization in 1992, the products were again sold under the traditional brand. Production is idle since 2011.

In 1901, Anton Waldmann founded a porcelain factory, which after acquisition by Sommer & Matschak produced tableware from 1904 till after World War II. 

PLACES TO SEE

In a historically significant street, you will find the town’s Municipal Museum situated in a bourgeois family’s Renaissance house. The development of this former mining village, later-on characterised by the tin and porcelain industry, is documented there. Come to see the peculiar Black Kitchen. 

The Gothic Church St. Georg (sv. Jiří) is an important monument ranking among Bohemia’s mightiest fortified churches. The graves of prominent citizens, like the ones of porcelain factory founders Georg Lippert and Wenzl Haas, can be found in the cemetery around the church.

  • Aussichtsturm Krásno (Schönfeld) mit keramischen Textplatten
  • Torfmoore entdecken in Kladská (Glatzen) – Lehrpfad um den Kladská-Teich und das Moor Tajga
  • Cykloportal der Karlsbader Region: www.kr-karlovarsky.cz/cyklo