Art

Panorama of the Army of the Cumberland

The National Museum of American History is not an art museum. But works of art fill its collections and testify to the vital place of art in everyday American life. The ceramics collections hold hundreds of examples of American and European art glass and pottery. Fashion sketches, illustrations, and prints are part of the costume collections. Donations from ethnic and cultural communities include many homemade religious ornaments, paintings, and figures. The Harry T Peters "America on Stone" collection alone comprises some 1,700 color prints of scenes from the 1800s. The National Quilt Collection is art on fabric. And the tools of artists and artisans are part of the Museum's collections, too, in the form of printing plates, woodblock tools, photographic equipment, and potters' stamps, kilns, and wheels.

Place: Germany

Meissen tureen and cover

MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue on an unglazed base; “28” impressed.PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1942.This tureen and cover is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of European Porcelain. Dr.
Description
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue on an unglazed base; “28” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1942.
This tureen and cover is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of European Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The oval tureen, based on contemporary silver prototypes and decorated with applied flowers modeled and molded separately, has shadowed insects painted in overglaze polychrome enamels. Shadowed (ombrierte) insects and flowers , also known as woodcut flowers (Holzschnittblumen), were based on late sixteenth and seventeenth-century books made available to the Meissen manufactory, for example: Joris and Jacob Höfnagel’s Archetypa Studiaque Patris Georgii Hoefnagelii (1592), Maria Sybilla Merian’s Neues Blumenbuch (1675-1683) and Wenzel Hollar’s illustrations of flora and fauna. These virtuoso works depicting plants and insects were used as pattern books by artists and artisans in the making of luxury artifacts well into the eighteenth century. Imagery of this kind appealed to the educated elite who developed an intense interest in nature in the search to understand flora and fauna according to the early modern concept of a planned creation of the world. Insects were appreciated for their uncommon beauty and mysterious life cycles. Meissen painters copied the convention of depicting these insects with faint shadows, a conceit used by Joris Hoefnagel to trick the eye into seeing the creature as though it had just alighted on the surface of a page.
There are no handles on this tureen.
In 1728, the model maker Gottlieb Kirchner (b.1706) introduced a small device for making oval-shaped forms. Further improvements led to a more robust machine developed by the organ builder Johann Ernst Hähnel in 1740, which was granted a patent by the Saxon Elector and King of Poland, Augustus II (1670-1733)making larger scale vessels easier to model.
Production of a dinner service was a large undertaking as the conventions of eighteenth-century dining followed the French style in which guests were offered a wide choice of dishes served at the table in three or more courses. Depending on social status the table might have included silver or gold plate on which to present the dishes, supplemented by a porcelain service for individual place settings. The visual climax of the dinner was the dessert, the course in which specially designed vessels made in porcelain and glass supported artfully placed fruits, sweetmeats, jellies and creams, and for which the confectioners created elaborate table decorations made in sugar with the addition of porcelain figures and centerpieces.
On the Meissen dinner services and table decorations see Ulrich Pietsch “Famous Eighteenth-Century Meissen Dinner Services” and Maureen Cassidy-Geiger “The Hof-Conditorey in Dresden” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 94-105; 120-131.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, pp. 362-363.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1740-1745
1740-1745
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1983.0565.50ab
accession number
1983.0565
collector/donor number
157
catalog number
1983.0565.50ab

Preston Brown

Oil on illustration board. Portrait of one star General Preston Brown. Army and Navy Service Ribbons for Decorations and Medals include: Spanish Campaign, Sampson Medal, Army of Cuban Occupation, and Army of Cuban Pacification.
Description
Oil on illustration board. Portrait of one star General Preston Brown. Army and Navy Service Ribbons for Decorations and Medals include: Spanish Campaign, Sampson Medal, Army of Cuban Occupation, and Army of Cuban Pacification. Brown wears a 3rd infantry division patch on the shoulder of his left arm sleeve (stripes appear to be upside down in portrait) and two gold overseas chevrons. He also wears a officer pin on his collar and a Sam Browne Belt.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1918
associated date
1917 - 1918
associated person
Chase, Joseph Cummings
Chase, Joseph Cummings
artists
Chase, Joseph Cummings
ID Number
AF.37690
catalog number
37690
accession number
117218

Clement A. F. Flagler

A frontal portrait of Clement A. F. Flagler depicted as Major General, commanded 5th Field Artillery Brigade, Chief of Artillery, 3rd Corps. An oil painting on an illlustration board. A white man, Major General Flagler has black/gray hair, brown eyes, black/gray moustache.
Description
A frontal portrait of Clement A. F. Flagler depicted as Major General, commanded 5th Field Artillery Brigade, Chief of Artillery, 3rd Corps. An oil painting on an illlustration board. A white man, Major General Flagler has black/gray hair, brown eyes, black/gray moustache. He is wearing an Overseas Cap with gold trim representing General staff and two stars on the front left portion of the cap indicating his rank as a Major General. He is wearing an officer tunic. He has two military ribbons on his left chest from left to right (viewer's perspective): Spanish Campaign and Spanish War Service. On his shoulder strap, there are two stars again indicating his rank as a Major General. He has a shoulder patch of a red, yellow, and blue rainbow representing the forty-second division. He has one brown downward chevron indicating at least six months of service overseas. It appears that he is holding a knife in his hands. Major General Flagler's signature can be seen on the bottom of the portrait. The bottom portion of the painting is not sketched or painted in great detail. Wear and tear can be seen on the edges particularly the lower left corner.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1918
associated date
1917 - 1918
associated person
Chase, Joseph Cummings
Chase, Joseph Cummings
maker
Chase, Joseph Cummings
ID Number
AF.58103M
catalog number
58103M
accession number
203612

Meissen tea bowl and saucer

TITLE: Meissen tea bowl and saucerMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H. 2" 5.1cm; Saucer: D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen tea bowl and saucer
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H. 2" 5.1cm; Saucer: D. 5⅛" 13.1cm
OBJECT NAME: Tea bowl and saucer
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1740-1745
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1989.0715.07a,b
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1241a,b
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “↗↗” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: William H. Lautz, New York, 1962.
This tea bowl and saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The butterflies and insects painted in onglaze enamels on this tea bowl and saucer were based on late sixteenth and seventeenth-century books made available to the Meissen manufactory, for example: Joris and Jacob Höfnagel’s Archetypa Studiaque Patris Georgii Hoefnagelii (1592), Maria Sybilla Merian’s Neues Blumenbuch (1675-1683) and Wenzel Hollar’s (1607-1677) illustrations of flora and fauna. These virtuoso works depicting plants and insects were used as pattern books by artists and artisans in the making of luxury artifacts well into the eighteenth century. Imagery of this kind appealed to the educated elite who developed an intense interest in nature in the search to understand flora and fauna according to the early modern concept of a planned creation of the world. Insects were appreciated for their uncommon beauty and mysterious life cycles.
The Meissen painter has copied the convention of depicting these insects with faint shadows, a conceit used by Joris Hoefnagel to trick the eye into seeing the creature as though it had just alighted on the surface of a page.
On the early sources for Meissen flower painting see Cassidy-Geiger, M., 1996, ‘Graphic Sources for Meissen Porcelain’ in Metropolitan Museum Journal, 31, pp.99-126
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp.360-361.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1740-1745
1740-1745
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1989.0715.07ab
accession number
1989.0715
catalog number
1989.0715.07ab
collector/donor number
1241

Meissen leaf dish (Hausmaler)

TITLE: Meissen small Leaf dish (Hausmaler)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: L.
Description
TITLE: Meissen small Leaf dish (Hausmaler)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: L. 4" 10.2 cm.
OBJECT NAME: Leaf dish
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1715-1720
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 75.194
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 806
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: None
PURCHASED FROM: Blumka Gallery, New York, 1948.
PROVENANCE: Collection of Oscar Bondy, Vienna .
This leaf dish is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The leaf dish was made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose, and wealthy patrons of local enameling and gilding workshops purchased undecorated porcelain, often of outmoded or inferior quality, which was then enameled with subjects of their choice. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories like Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.
Painted on Böttger porcelain, probably by the Silesian Hausmaler Ignaz Preissler, the small leaf dish made at the Meissen manufactory imitates the form of Chinese brush washers made in milky white blanc de chine fired in the Dehua kilns in Fujian Province. The dishes were luxury items for the use of scholars who practiced calligraphy. In China the dishes were not decorated except for a floral sprig on the base of the dish that served as a stabilizer. The Meissen copy also has a sprig on the base with the typical twig-shaped handle. On the interior of the dish the European Hausmaler has used iron-red and gold pigment to paint a water nymph holding a basket of fruit while she rests on a dolphin. Painted on the exterior is a stag, some birds and a cupid framed by elaborate strapwork. These motifs are common to many ornamental designs dating back to the sixteenth century. Many examples of leaf dishes exist, but their purpose in a West European context is not clear.
On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46.
On the work of Ignaz Preissler see Cassidy-Geiger, M., 1989, “’ Repraesentatio Belli, ob successionem in Regno Hispanico....”’: A Tea Service and Garniture by the Schwarzlot Decorator Ignaz Preissler” Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol. 24, pp. 239-254.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp.528-529.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1715-1720
1715-1720
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.75.194
catalog number
75.194
collector/donor number
806
accession number
319073

KPM Berlin porcelain wall plaque

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1890
ID Number
CE.P-649
catalog number
P-649
accession number
225282

Faust And Margurite

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
ID Number
GA.15749.9
catalog number
15749.9
accession number
94830

Meissen tea bowl and saucer (Hausmaler)

TITLE: Meissen tea bowl and saucer (Hausmaler)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Bowl: H. 1¾" 4.5 cmSaucer: D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen tea bowl and saucer (Hausmaler)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Bowl: H. 1¾" 4.5 cm
Saucer: D. 5" 12.8 cm
OBJECT NAME: Tea bowl and saucer
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1715-1720, Meissen
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 76.378 a,b
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 505 a,b
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: None
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.
This tea bowl and saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The tea bowl and saucer were made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose, and wealthy patrons of local enameling and gilding workshops purchased undecorated porcelain, often of out-moded or inferior quality, which was then enameled with subjects of their choice. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories like Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.
The identity of the painter of the Chinese figures in a garden setting is probably Johann Philipp Dannhöffer (1712-1790) who first worked in Vienna before moving to Bayreuth in 1737, but some uncertainty remains (see also the tankard: ID number 66.171). The pattern of the gold border, the delicate foliage and colors are considered typical of Bayreuth Hausmaler work.
On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 550-551.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1715-1720
1715-1720
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.76.378ab
catalog number
76.378ab
collector/donor number
505
accession number
1977.0166

Meissen rinsing bowl

TITLE: Meissen rinsing bowlMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H.3⅛" 8.5cmOBJECT NAME: Rinsing bowlPLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: 1740-1750SUBJECT:ArtDomestic FurnishingIndustry and ManufacturingCREDIT
Description
TITLE: Meissen rinsing bowl
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H.3⅛" 8.5cm
OBJECT NAME: Rinsing bowl
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1740-1750
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.14
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 452
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in undeglaze blue; “St” in gold (painter’s mark); “18” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.
This rinsing bowl is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The subjects painted in polychrome enamels on this bowl were based on the large number of prints after paintings by Dutch artists of the seventeenth century that formed a major part of Meissen’s output from the early 1730s until the 1750s. The Meissen manufactory accumulated folios of prints, about six to twelve in a set, as well as illustrated books and individual prints after the work of many Dutch artists, especially Jan van Goyen (1596-1656), Jan van de Velde II(1593-1641), and Johann Wilhelm Baur (d.1640). Meissen painters often based their images on imaginary landscapes by Dutch artists, and were encouraged to use their imagination to ensure that their work was unique to each porcelain piece in a set of vases, a table or tea and coffee service.
The painting represents a continuous scene encircling the exterior of the bowl in which handsomely dressed so-called “Watteau” figures appear at rest on the banks of a river with their dog nearby, a man on horseback approaches along a path while a figure can be seen walking behind him. On the river a man and a woman are ferried to the opposite side. As the scene continues around the bowl a village appears in the distance and a man sits at rest beside the road. Subjects like this were symptomatic of the nobility’s idealized projection of their persons into a pastoral context that was perceived to be a site of simplicity and picturesque tranquility free of the obligations imposed by court society. At the same time it was a statement of land ownership where the privileged surveyed their possessions from their position of advantage?
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Flower and fruit painters were paid less than workers who specialized in figures and landscapes, and most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage. On-glaze gold decoration was the work of specialist gold painters and polishers.
Rinsing bowls were used to dispense with tea and coffee dregs before refilling cups or tea bowls with fresh liquid.
On graphic sources for Meissen’s painters see Möller, K. A., “’…fine copper pieces for the factory…’ Meissen Pieces Based on graphic originals” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 84-93. On Dutch landscape painting see Gibson, W. S., 2000, Pleasant Places: The Rustic Landscape from Bruegel to Ruisdael.
On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 308-309.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1740-1745
1740-1745
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1987.0896.14
catalog number
1987.0896.14
accession number
1987.0896
collector/donor number
452

Walter E. Gaultney

A portrait of Walter E. Gaultney depicted as Corporal, Company K, 11th Infantry, 5th Division. An oil painting on an illustration board. A white man, Corporal Gaultney is looking around at the viewer with his body facing left.
Description
A portrait of Walter E. Gaultney depicted as Corporal, Company K, 11th Infantry, 5th Division. An oil painting on an illustration board. A white man, Corporal Gaultney is looking around at the viewer with his body facing left. He has brown hair, brown eyes, is wearing a brown tunic with a overseas cap. He is wearing a backpack along with his long trench knife and his M1917 steel helmet. On his left shoulder, there is a red dimaond insignia indicating the fifth division. He is wearing collar disk with two guns crossed indicating infantry. His signature is seen on the lower right portion of the portrait. The painting is mostly complete and done with the exception of the lower left portion. The painting has a light brown background.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1919
associated date
1917 - 1918
associated person
Chase, Joseph Cummings
Chase, Joseph Cummings
maker
Chase, Joseph Cummings
ID Number
AF.58385M
catalog number
58385M
accession number
212053

Meissen bowl

TITLE: Meissen BowlMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H. 3 in. 7.6cm; D. 6in.
Description
TITLE: Meissen Bowl
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H. 3 in. 7.6cm; D. 6in. 15.3cm
OBJECT NAME: Bowl
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1725-1735
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1979.0120.05
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1090
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1959.
The bowl is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychoanalysis and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The bowl is in the style of early Böttger porcelains designed by the Dresden court goldsmith, Johann Jacob Irminger (1635-1724), but with the mark of crossed swords in underglaze blue it was made, or finished, in or after 1725. Irminger adapted his designs for many of the Böttger red stonewares and porcelains from vessels made in silver or gold, and from cut and polished stone ornaments in the quartz family like agate, chalcedony, and jasper. The bowl featured here does not have a rim that finishes in a fine outward flare, characteristic of most Meissen bowls and tea bowls of this early period (see for comparison ID number 75.186 with applied acanthus tendrils), so its history and purpose is not entirely clear. Given the bowl's rather inferior quality, it might be a trial piece for a later porcelain body introduced in the 1720s.
Laurel leaves, molded separately and applied to the bowl, rise from the foot ring, and this pattern can be seen on many examples of Böttger red stonewares and porcelains, especially the vases. Like the acanthus motif, laurel has its origins in the ornament of ancient Greece, where the plant was sacred to Apollo and used in purification rituals. More familiar perhaps is the mythical story of Apollo’s pursuit of the nymph Daphne, who not returning his passion, flees from him to her father the river god, Peneus. Rescue comes by transforming his daughter into a laurel tree.
On Böttger stoneware and porcelain see Pietsch, U., 1993, Early Meissen Porcelain: a Private Collection; by the same author, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: the Wark Collection from the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens.
Zimmerman, E., 1908, Die Erfindung und Fruhzeit des Meissner Porzellans: Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Keramik.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 268-269.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1725-1735
1725-1735
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1979.0120.05
catalog number
1979.0120.05
accession number
1979.0120
collector/donor number
1090

Meissen stoneware rinsing bowl

MARKS: None.PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1949.This rinsing bowl is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr.
Description
MARKS: None.
PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1949.
This rinsing bowl is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York collector and dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
This rinsing bowl was made in red stoneware, a very hard and dense type of ceramic similar in appearance to the Chinese Yixing ceramics which inspired their imitation at Meissen. Red stoneware, enriched with iron oxides, preceded porcelain in the Dresden laboratory where physicist, mathematician, and philosopher, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus (1651-1708) and alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682-1719) experimented with raw materials fused by solar energy amplified through a burning glass. Success in red stoneware was an important step towards the development of white porcelain but remained in production for only twenty years following the introduction of white porcelain in 1710.
The glazed bowl is of dark brown stoneware, and the color of the stoneware body in this class of objects varied considerably from a bright iron red to dark brown or grey. It is likely that this black-glazed bowl was made to resemble the highly prized black lacquer wares imported to Europe from Japan by the Dutch East India Company. The bowl may have been one of many produced at Meissen with the intention of painting the surface with gold and a limited palette of cold colors in imitation of the Japanese originals (see Kopplin, M., van Aken-Fehmers, M.S., Cassidy-Geiger, M., 2004, Schwartz Porcelain: the lacquer craze and its impact on European porcelain, exhibition catalog of the Staatlicher Schlösser und Gärten Baden-Württemberg).
Rinsing bowls received the water that was used to wash out the dregs of tea in tea bowls and cups before refilling the vessels with fresh liquid.
On the introduction of tea see Ukers, W. H., 1936, All About Tea; Bowman, P.B., 1995, In Praise of Hot Liquors: The Study of Chocolate, Coffee and Tea-drinking 1600-1850.
On Yixing stonewares see Lo, K.S., 1986, The Stonewares of Yixing from the Ming Period to the Present Day; Fang Lili, 2011, Chinese Ceramics, Cambridge University Press, p. 115 Zisha-the Taste of Tea.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 28-29.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1710-1715
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.76.362
catalog number
76.362
collector/donor number
839
accession number
1977.0166

German Billets in a Village Near Montabaur

A charcoal, watercolor, and pastel sketch on paper. In the drawing, six soldiers are standing in front of several timber frame buildings in a village near Montabaur, Germany. Debris is scattered around the outside of the buildings.Currently not on view
Description
A charcoal, watercolor, and pastel sketch on paper. In the drawing, six soldiers are standing in front of several timber frame buildings in a village near Montabaur, Germany. Debris is scattered around the outside of the buildings.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1918
associated date
1917-1918
associated person
War Department
artist
Smith, J. Andre
ID Number
AF.25991
catalog number
25991
accession number
64592

Harry A. Smith

Oil on illustration board. Portrait of one star General Harry A. Smith. Army Service Ribbons for Decorations and Medals include: Philippine Capaign, Bronze Star, and Spanish Campaign. Smith wears officer and possibly a staff corps pins on his collar.
Description
Oil on illustration board. Portrait of one star General Harry A. Smith. Army Service Ribbons for Decorations and Medals include: Philippine Capaign, Bronze Star, and Spanish Campaign. Smith wears officer and possibly a staff corps pins on his collar. He also wears two gold chevrons on his lower left arm sleeve, glasses, and a Sam Browne belt. Smith sits at a table reading a document. His hands have not been filled in with color. Smith's signature in red crayon is in the bottom left corner. Catalogue card reads: Commanded Army Schools.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1918
associated date
1917 - 1918
associated person
Chase, Joseph Cummings
Chase, Joseph Cummings
artist
Chase, Joseph Cummings
ID Number
AF.58096M
catalog number
58096M
accession number
203612

Meissen sugar box and cover

TITLE: Meissen sugar box and coverMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H. 3" 7.6cm; L. 4¼" 10.8cmOBJECT NAME: Sugar boxPLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: ca.
Description
TITLE: Meissen sugar box and cover
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H. 3" 7.6cm; L. 4¼" 10.8cm
OBJECT NAME: Sugar box
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: ca. 1722-1723
SUBJECT: Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 76.368ab
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 225
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: “K.P.F.” (Königliche Porzellan Fabrik) in underglaze blue; red luster design inside box and cover
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.
This sugar box is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The sugar box has a landscape on the cover depicting a flock of birds rising above a gate entrance to a country property, and a tree silhouetted against the sky is seen on the left of the cover. On the box waterside scenes framed by scrolled cartouches typical of Meissen at this date are set against an expanse of sky with flocks of birds taking to the air; so-called Indian flowers (indianische Blumen) decorate the areas outside the frames.
Sources for enamel painted harbor scenes and landscapes came from the large number of prints after paintings by Dutch masters of the seventeenth century that formed a major part of Meissen’s output from the early 1720s until the 1750s. The Meissen manufactory accumulated folios of prints, about six to twelve in a set, as well as illustrated books and individual prints after the work of many European artists, especially the work of Jan van Goyen (1596-1656), Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), and Johann Wilhelm Baur (d.1640). The artist Jan van de Velde II was a prolific printmaker in what was a thriving publishing industry in the Dutch Republic of the seventeenth century. The folios of print series featuring landscapes, villages, country houses, and waterside scenes were intended to bring pleasure and repose to those who purchased them, especially to people living in the busy cities of the Republic, and this appeal endured well into the eighteenth century beyond the borders of the Netherlands.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes, harbor, and river scenes with staffage (figures and animals) were paid more than those who painted flowers, fruits and underglaze blue patterns. Most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage or salary. Decorative scrollwork and gold painting was the responsibility of other painters specializing in this form of decoration. All enameled and gold painted items passed through several pairs of hands in their making.
Tea, coffee, chocolate, and sugar were luxury products for early eighteenth-century consumers, and the equipage for these hot beverages, made in silver and new ceramic materials like Meissen’s red stoneware and porcelain, was affordable only to the elite of European society. Less expensive versions for storing and preparing these products were made from various kinds of wood, from tin, from japanned materials, and in earthenware pottery.
On graphic sources for Meissen’s painters see Möller, K. A., “’…fine copper pieces for the factory…’ Meissen Pieces Based on graphic originals” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 84-93.
On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136.
On prints from the Netherlands see Goddard, S. H., Sets and Series: Prints from the Low Countries.
On tea, coffee, and chocolate equipage see Bowman, P.B., 1995, In Praise of Hot Liquors: The Study of Chocolate, Coffee and Tea-drinking 1600-1850.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, pp. 102-103.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1723-1724
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.76.368ab
catalog number
76.368ab
accession number
1977.0166
collector/donor number
225ab

George W. Langham

Oil on illustration board. Portrait of Private George W. Langham. Army Service Ribbon for Decorations and Medals include: Distinguished Service Cross. Langham wears a tunic with the 32nd Infantry Division insignia patch on the shoulder of his left arm sleeve.
Description
Oil on illustration board. Portrait of Private George W. Langham. Army Service Ribbon for Decorations and Medals include: Distinguished Service Cross. Langham wears a tunic with the 32nd Infantry Division insignia patch on the shoulder of his left arm sleeve. He wears a overseas cap and a M1910 pack and M1905 Springfield bayonet. Langham's right hand has not been filled in with color.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1918
associated date
1917 - 1918
associated person
Chase, Joseph Cummings
Chase, Joseph Cummings
artist
Chase, Joseph Cummings
ID Number
AF.58055M
catalog number
58055M
accession number
203612

Street in Cochem, Germany

Charcoal and watercolor sketch on paper. Street scene of Cochem, Germany after the Armistice of World War I. There are four armed soldiers marching through the street.Currently not on view
Description
Charcoal and watercolor sketch on paper. Street scene of Cochem, Germany after the Armistice of World War I. There are four armed soldiers marching through the street.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1918-12
artist
Smith, J. Andre
ID Number
AF.26056
catalog number
26056
accession number
64592

Meissen chocolate cup and saucer (part of a service: Hausmaler)

TITLE: Meissen: Part of a tea service (Hausmalerin)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Tea bowls: H. 1¾" 4.5 cmChocolate cup: 3⅛" 8 cmSaucer: D. 5⅛" 13.1 cmTeapot: H.
Description
TITLE: Meissen: Part of a tea service (Hausmalerin)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Tea bowls: H. 1¾" 4.5 cm
Chocolate cup: 3⅛" 8 cm
Saucer: D. 5⅛" 13.1 cm
Teapot: H. 5" 12.8 cm
OBJECT NAME: Part of a tea service
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1730
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1987.0896. 34 A,B; 36 a,b; 37 a,b
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 227 A,B; 228 a,b; 229 a,b
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue, except chocolate cup, which is unmarked.
PURCHASED FROM: Minerva Antiques, New York, 1943.
These parts from a tea service are in the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The parts of this tea service were made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose, and wealthy patrons of local enameling and gilding workshops purchased undecorated porcelain, often of out-moded or inferior quality, which was then enameled with subjects of their choice. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories like Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or even imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.
The tea service was painted in Augsburg in the 1720s.Two hundred years earlier Augsburg was the center of international merchant banking, and it is no coincidence that it was also a center for goldsmithing work of exceptional quality. Although no longer a powerful city in the eighteenth century, Augsburg was still renowned for its high quality artisan trades in precious metals, book production, and textiles. Hausmalerei was one among many subsidiary trades that met demands from other workshops, individual clients, and new manufactories like that of Meissen.
This Meissen tea service was probably painted by Anna Elizabeth Wald (b. 1696), and perhaps by her sister Sabina Hosennestel (1706-1782) as well. The two women were the daughters of the gold worker and Hausmaler Johann Aufenwerth (d.1728) but it is difficult to distinguish their styles one from the other. Another sister, Johanna Warmberger (1693-1772), also worked in the family business. The sisters specialized in decorative gilding and enamel painting of chinoiseries like the images seen here of two gentlemen smoking and taking tea in a garden.
Sabina Hosennestel married the tradesman and coffee-house owner, Isaac Hosennestel in 1731. It is thought that some of the porcelain vessels painted by the Aufenwerth sisters were intended for use in the coffee-house alongside Chinese and Japanese imported porcelain. There were five other coffee-houses in Augsburg in the first half of the eighteenth century.
Other pieces from this service are in the Forsythe Wickes Collection, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (inv. Numbers 65.2076-65.2080).
See Ducret, S., 1971, Meissner Porzellan bemalt in Augsburg, 1718 bis um 1750, Band 1 Goldmalereien und bunte Chinoiserien.
On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 506-507.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1720-1725
1720-1725
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1987.0896.36ab
catalog number
1987.0896.36ab
accession number
1987.0896
collector/donor number
228

Charles Cameron

Oil on illustration board. Portrait of enlisted Private Charles Cameron. Army decoration includes the Distinguished Service Cross.
Description
Oil on illustration board. Portrait of enlisted Private Charles Cameron. Army decoration includes the Distinguished Service Cross. Cameron wears three service chevrons (which appear red in the painting) on his bottom left hand sleeve and a 1st Infantry Division patch on his upper left sleeve (appears to be worn on the shoulder strap in painting). On his collar is a gold collar disk (design unknown). Cameron wears a overseas cap.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1910
1919
associated date
1917 - 1918
associated person
Chase, Joseph Cummings
Chase, Joseph Cummings
artist
Chase, Joseph Cummings
ID Number
AF.37693
catalog number
37693
accession number
117218

Meissen tea bowl and Vienna saucer

TITLE: Meissen tea bowl (with Vienna saucer)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H.1⅝" 4.2cmOBJECT NAME: Tea bowl and saucerPLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: 1725-1730 Tea bowl (Meissen)1750-1755 Saucer (V
Description
TITLE: Meissen tea bowl (with Vienna saucer)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H.1⅝" 4.2cm
OBJECT NAME: Tea bowl and saucer
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1725-1730 Tea bowl (Meissen)
1750-1755 Saucer (Vienna)
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1983.0565.38 AB
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 919 AB
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue on tea bowl; shield in underglaze blue, and “70” incised on saucer.
PURCHASED FROM: Hans Backer, London, England, 1952.
This tea bowl, with a matching saucer made in Vienna, is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The pattern on this tea bowl and saucer painted in overglaze enamel, purple luster, and gold comes from Johann Schmischek’s (1585-1650) Groteschgen Büchlein (Little Book of Grotesques) published in Munich in 1630, and the patterns were originally designed for the ornamentation of guns, hence the hunting dog confronting a wild boar on the saucer and another dog chasing a hare on the tea bowl; Schmischek is listed as an arquebusier in contemporary catalogs which probably indicates his work as a designer of ornament for this class of weaponry. Not many Meissen pieces with this pattern exist today, and that suggests that the design was not successful or that the service was a private commission. These pieces are further complicated by the fact that the saucer appears to have been made in Vienna, and a sugar bowl with a Du Paquier Vienna mark passed through Christie’s salerooms in 2005. The saucer may have been a replacement and the sugar bowl a replacement or an addition to the set that may well have been in Vienna in the mid-eighteenth century.
Experts suggest on the one hand that the decoration on the tea bowl was the work of a Hausmaler, an enamel painter outside the Meissen manufactory, or on the other hand, that the presence of purple luster indicates decoration at Meissen; purple luster was not usually seen outside the manufactory in the 1720s. It is also possible that an outside decorator could have mastered the technique of handling purple luster as this style is not typical of Meissen in the 1730s.
To view the Vienna saucer see ID number 1983.0565.38B
Two tea bowls and saucers with very similar patterns can be seen in Ulrich Pietsch, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from the Cummer Museum and Art Gallery (The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens and D.Giles Ltd: Jacksonville FL and London UK, 2011) p.521. Comparable items are in the collections of the Seattle Art Museum, Seattle WA; the British Museum (1955.0708.1)and the Victoria and Albert Museum, London UK (202&A-1854); the Nationalmuseum Stockholm, Sweden.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 276-277.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1725-1730
tea bowl 1725-1730
saucer 1750-55
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1983.0565.38A
accession number
1983.0565
catalog number
1983.0565.38A
collector/donor number
919

George S. Watson

Oil on illustration board. Portrait of Lieutenant Colonel George L. Watson. Army Service Ribbons for Decorations and Medals include: Légion d'honneur, and the Croix de Guerre with palm.
Description
Oil on illustration board. Portrait of Lieutenant Colonel George L. Watson. Army Service Ribbons for Decorations and Medals include: Légion d'honneur, and the Croix de Guerre with palm. Watson also wears officer and General Staff Corps pins on the collar of his tunic, the insignia of a Lieutenant Colonel on his shoulder loops, a General Staff Corp armband with red and white (indicating army headquarters with insignia on his left arm sleeve, and the 3rd army insignia on the shoulder of left arm sleeve. Watson also wears two gold chevrons on his lower left arm sleeve (indicating overseas service), three gold chevrons on his lower right arm sleeve (indicated wounds recieved in action), and a Sam Browne belt. He has short brown hair and a moustache. Watson's signature in pencil is in the top left corner.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1919
associated date
1917 - 1918
associated person
Chase, Joseph Cummings
Chase, Joseph Cummings
artist
Chase, Joseph Cummings
ID Number
AF.58074M
catalog number
58074M
accession number
203612

Meissen porcelain knife handle

TITLE: Six knivesMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Handle: L.
Description
TITLE: Six knives
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Handle: L. 3¼" 8.3cm
OBJECT NAME: Knives
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1750
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1992.0427.18 a-f
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 289 a-f
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: None on the porcelain handles; on the silver blades, “H.M.” stamped, and St. Petersburg hallmarks of 1790.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.
These knives are from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
With pistol-shaped handles painted with German flowers (deutsche Blumen) in overglaze enamel, there is in addition a molded basket weave pattern in relief forming a collar on the upper haft and butt end of the knives.
European flowers began to appear on Meissen porcelain in about 1740 as the demand for Far Eastern patterns became less dominant and more high quality printed sources became available in conjunction with growing interest in the scientific study of flora and fauna. For the German flowers Meissen painters referred to Johann Wilhelm Weinmann’s publication, the Phytantoza Iconographia (Nuremberg 1737-1745), in which many of the plates were engraved from drawings by the outstanding botanical illustrator Georg Dionys Ehret (1708-1770). Specialist gold painters applied ornament on the rims.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Flower painters were paid less than workers who specialized in figures and landscapes, and most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage. In the late eighteenth century flower painters were even busier and consumer taste for floral decoration on domestic “china” has endured into our own time, but with the exception of a manufactory like Meissen most floral patterns are now applied by transfers and are not hand-painted directly onto the porcelain.
The handles were usually sold with a dinner service and the metal blades made to order by a silversmith local to the purchaser. Meissen flatware was often gilded.
On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meißener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136.
On graphic sources for Meissen porcelain see Möller, K. A., “Meissen Pieces Based on Graphic Originals” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp.85-93; Cassidy-Geiger, M., 1996, ‘Graphic Sources for Meissen Porcelain’ in Metropolitan Museum Journal, 31, pp.99-126.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 396-397.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
mid 18th century
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1992.0427.18E
accession number
1992.0427
catalog number
1992.0427.18E
collector/donor number
289

Good Shepherd

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
nineteenth century
original artist
Overbeck, Johann Friedrich
publisher
Verein zur Verbreitung religioser Bilder in Dusseldorf
graphic artist
Rittinghaus, E.
maker
Verein zur Verbreitung religioser Bilder in Dusseldorf
Rittinghaus, E.
ID Number
GA.14233.50b
accession number
94830
catalog number
14233.50b

Meissen cup and saucer

TITLE: Meissen cup and saucerMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H 1½" 3.8cm; Saucer D. 4¾" 12.1cmOBJECT NAME: Cup and saucerPLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: ca.
Description
TITLE: Meissen cup and saucer
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H 1½" 3.8cm; Saucer D. 4¾" 12.1cm
OBJECT NAME: Cup and saucer
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: ca. 1740
SUBJECT: Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.12ab
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 99ab
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; two dots overglaze in iron-red and “10” impressed on cup; “11” impressed on saucer (former’s numbers).
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941.
This cup and saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
The exteriors of both the cup and saucer have yellow onglaze grounds. On the interior of the saucer there is a finely painted and well composed onglaze enamel painting of a man and a dog crossing a high bridge over a river. A fisherman stands on the left bank of the river with a village in the background and just discernible is a windmill in the far distance. In white reserves on the exterior of the cup there are river and harbor scenes also painted in black with some iron-red.
Waterways formed a major conduit for trade in the seventeenth-century Dutch Republic, and artists produced a large number of paintings and prints that featured everyday life alongside rivers, canals and harbors. The enduring popularity of waterside and landscape subjects, especially the tranquil rural scenes depicted in prints by artists like Jan van de Velde, held particular appeal for Europeans confined to city and court. Long before Meissen began production Dutch artists realized the potential for a market in prints that led viewers into pleasant places real and imagined. In seventeenth-century Amsterdam there was a flourishing publishing industry to support the production of illustrated books and print series for buyers to view at their leisure. Printed images enriched people’s lives and a series of prints might take the viewer on a journey, real or imaginary. Prints performed a role in European visual culture later extended by photography and film, and they provided artisans and artists with images, motifs, and patterns applied in many branches of the applied arts.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes, harbor, and river scenes with staffage (figures and animals) were paid more than those who painted flowers, fruits and underglaze blue patterns. Most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage or salary. Onglaze colored grounds, like the yellow ground seen here were applied onto the surface of the glaze either with a stippling brush in which the pigment was flicked onto the surface of the glaze from a lightly loaded brush, or applied in powder form from a pad, a difficult technique that required skill in order to achieve an even coat with good depth of color. Gold rim lines were applied by another worker in the painting division.
On seventeenth-century Dutch art see Gibson, W.S., (2000) Pleasant Places: the rustic landscape from Bruegel to Ruisdael; Goddard, S.H., (1984) Sets and Series: prints from the Low Countries, exhibition catalog, Yale University Art Gallery.
On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 306-307.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1740
1740
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1987.0896.12ab
catalog number
1987.0896.12ab
accession number
1987.0896
collector/donor number
99ab

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