Member of the old pottery family from Bardejov, the fourteenth and last representative. He inherited from his father, who was the last master potter in Bardejov, the production legacy of the old craft along with written and other historical monuments related to the pottery past of this town. He actively produced since 1915. In his own production, he hardly deviated...
Member of the old pottery family from Bardejov, the fourteenth and last representative. He inherited from his father, who was the last master potter in Bardejov, the production legacy of the old craft along with written and other historical monuments related to the pottery past of this town. He actively produced since 1915. In his own production, he hardly deviated from the traditional family assortment, only adjusting some products for contemporary use. Some of his vases from the mid-1950s represent functionally and ornamentally newer paths.
His pottery work is characterized by rich decoration of hollow and flat products. The most common ornamental elements on the hollow products are lines and waves, while on dishes and plates, sprigs of juniper and drops in various arrangements, combined with previous motifs, with a painted bird in the middle. The bird, distinguished as a peacock or sparrow by its tail, was already characteristic of the Bardejov pottery region in the 17th century.
The ornamental elements of Frankovič’s products are small and densely cover the surface. He painted them with a quill, with only a stylized bird at the bottom of almost every plate and dish being done with a brush. Each product was coated with engobes in white, light brown, or dark brown color. Ornamental decoration always consisted of several colors, mostly light brown, light green, light blue, and white, giving an overall pastel hue. The products were glazed with transparent glaze and fired in an open-field kiln. The resulting uneven coloration gave each article a unique charm.
In addition to creating utility items, after 1956, when he began to cooperate with the Center for Folk Art Production, he also delved into the creation of figurative works at the suggestion of the artist Dagmar Rosůlková, as the demand for classical pottery production had decreased at that time. In the production of figurative boxes and candle holders, he combined turning and modeling techniques. He maintained the vertical orientation of the figures, especially in single-piece candle holders and sculptures of female figures, but also in two-part boxes resembling bears or little men, as he himself called the traditional Jewish figure. His figurative works also include Christ figures pressed into molds. He used the same technique and motifs for decoration as on utility ware, with the same color palette, mostly dark brown and ochre, as he made most of the engobes himself.
He willingly shared his mastery with other ceramists from the area. In his footsteps walked the couple Štefan and Elena Tomečko from the Dubie settlement near Koprivnica, as well as Tomáš Mihok from Kurima.