Polish Pottery Patterns--The Truth!

If you spend any time shopping for Polish Pottery Stoneware, you’ll start to hear all sorts of talk using words like: Unikat, Art, and Signature. All three of these terms are virtually interchangeable. They signify that beyond a piece being 1st Quality in construction and painting, the piece is crafted with more hand-painted detail than others, and therefore more expensive and highly treasured. Fewer artists can paint an “Art” pattern, as it is requires a great deal of training, experience and skill.

The word “Unikat” means “unique” in Polish, and all “Art” pieces are stamped with this word on bottom. And of course, each “Art” piece is signed on the bottom with the artist’s full signature, which is why it is also known as a “Signature” piece. The signing of the artist’s full signature on the bottom is a distinction from the other patterns, which typically only have the artist’s initials or a company logo.

But don’t think it is that simple. With 7+ major Polish Stoneware factories (and many smaller ones) producing this fine quality stoneware, there is a lot of variation to how they structure their pricing scale.

For example, one of my favorite Polish factories is Zaklady Ceramiczne. There are four different price levels used in this factory. And you can learn which patterns are which in each level by looking at the pattern code, often listed on the bottom of the pottery, or on retailers websites.

The prices vary depending on the detail of the hand-painted work. For example, when selecting a Polish Pottery product, a code of GU596-56 signifies that you are looking at a teapot (shape number 596), in the Peacock (number 56) pattern, just as a GU814-ART104 pattern would signify a Salad Plate (814) in a Daisy (ART104) pattern. The pattern level is always the second part of the product code, coming just after the dash. The first, and least-expensive level is the “Classic” level, and has numbers without any letters attached (i.e. 41, 56, 111). The “Upper Classic” is the next level up, and always has an “A” attached to the end of the pattern code (166A, 205A, 224A). The third level is the “Subtle” level, labeled as DU (DU1, DU8, DU60) which is sometimes a signed Unikat level, and the highest level is the “Signature Series,” which is labeled with the word “ART” before the pattern number (ART104, ART126, ART129). As you move up the levels, the detail and work gets noticeably more complicated, which is why the prices go up as well.

For example, look at the bottom of a cookie tray below. The blue tag shows "GU1103" and "104ART" as well as "GAT 1":



If the blue tag is missing, your "Unikat" pieces may still have the necessary codes on them, like this "818" piece, as "ART123" pattern!

Why do they switch off writing the "ART" coding before or after the number, such as ART123 or 104ART above?
Just to confuse us. Yup--that's why!

So the truth is...you can ignore American retailers names they assign to Polish Pottery patterns (like the above "Peacock, Daisy, etc" that I just used). They do not originate from Polish factories, but are selected by individual US retailers to make it easier to sell the patterns to collectors. But the names can change from retailer to retailer. In reality, the numbers are what count!!