This department provides a survey of glazed earthenware, tin-glazed earthenware, stoneware and porcelain from the end of the Middle Ages to the present, illustrating the variety of styles and techniques.
Because of the quality of its individual pieces, the ensemble of Delft tin-glazed earthenware and Dutch faience is renowned worldwide.
The Belgian ceramics include items of Antwerp maiolica (Renaissance ceramics), stoneware from Raeren and Buoffioulx, tin-glazed earthenware from Brussels, faience fine from Andenne and porcelain from Brussels. The collection of Tournai porcelain (the Solvay bequest) is one of the two largest in Belgium.
Other European ceramics include representative examples of Italian maiolica, Meissen porcelain, French porcelain and English, French and Luxembourg faience fine. There is also a rich collection of ceramics from the end of the 19th century to the end of the 20th and it includes a vase by Gauguin, tin-glazed earthenware and stoneware from the Bock atelier at La Louvière, glazed clay by Willy Finch, as well as Art Deco porcelain from Sèvres and Copenhagen. Contemporary, post-war Belgian and foreign ceramics are also represented.