From Bolesławiec with love: Polish pottery firm designs CIA crockery

A handicraft cooperative in Poland has designed tableware for one of the largest spy organisations in the world – the CIA.

The American Central Intelligence Agency placed the order with the Artistic Handicrafts Cooperative in the small town of Bolesławiec in southwest Poland, asking them to create pieces of unique crockery with the agency’s logo.  

Included among the tableware are plates, bowls and serving trays. 

The head of the cooperative, Helena Smolenska, said they had accepted the job with ‘joy and disbelief’. 

She added that the hardest part of creating the unique, handpainted crockery was getting the original colours of the CIA’s logo, which consists of the American eagle, a compass rose, shield and gold scroll, to go with the pottery's blue and white floral design.

The cooperative, which also designed tableware for the Pope in 1997, posted on its website: “This is a unique order and the only such stylization in the world, despite the fact that the company sends its products to 25 countries.

“The rehearsals and the creation of subsequent versions of the project continued for several months. 

“The agents also had special colour requirements. More freedom was in the creation of decorations, the author of which is Maria Starzyk, a longtime designer at the Cooperative.”

Smolenska said she couldn’t disclose how many sets the CIA ordered but confirmed that they had completed and shipped the order a few months ago and that she had been given permission by the intelligence agency to make a few comments. 

On the back of each piece is the trademark of the 65-year-old Bolesławiec cooperative.

Boleslawiec ceramics, whose products are sold internationally, says it combines “time-honoured traditions with the challenges of modern applied art” to its creations.

The tradition of painting pottery in the town goes back to the 18th century.