Domestic Furnishings

Washboards, armchairs, lamps, and pots and pans may not seem to be museum pieces. But they are invaluable evidence of how most people lived day to day, last week or three centuries ago. The Museum's collections of domestic furnishings comprise more than 40,000 artifacts from American households. Large and small, they include four houses, roughly 800 pieces of furniture, fireplace equipment, spinning wheels, ceramics and glass, family portraits, and much more.

The Arthur and Edna Greenwood Collection contains more than 2,000 objects from New England households from colonial times to mid-1800s. From kitchens of the past, the collections hold some 3,300 artifacts, ranging from refrigerators to spatulas. The lighting devices alone number roughly 3,000 lamps, candleholders, and lanterns.

Large, plain-rimmed circular dish with shallow, flat well; no foot ring. Rim face is stamped at top "N / D I" in serif letters.
Description
Large, plain-rimmed circular dish with shallow, flat well; no foot ring. Rim face is stamped at top "N / D I" in serif letters. Underside has a very faint, partial touch mark near top of well with "[???]RE(?)[???]" in arched reserve; a crowned "X" is near bottom.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1735
ID Number
DL.388301
catalog number
388301
accession number
182022
TITLE: Meissen tankard (Hausmaler)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: 5¾" 14.6 cmOBJECT NAME: TankardPLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: 1730, MeissenSUBJECT: The Hans Syz CollectionArtDomestic
Description
TITLE: Meissen tankard (Hausmaler)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: 5¾" 14.6 cm
OBJECT NAME: Tankard
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1730, Meissen
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.40
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 953
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in blue on unglazed base.
PURCHASED FROM: Blumka Gallery, New York, 1957. Ex. Coll. Dr. Hermann Freund.
This tankard 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 tankard was made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. There is no cover on this piece. 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 tankard has an allegorical subject painted in the style of Hausmaler Hans Gottlieb von Bressler of Breslau who painted on porcelain for his own pleasure in the style of his teacher, the well-known Hausmaler Ignaz Bottengruber, also of Breslau. Count von Bressler became mayor of Breslau in 1766.
It is not clear what the allegory on this tankard depicts. The authors of the Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection suggest that the map represents the partition of Poland-Lithuania, but that process did not begin until 1772, well after Bressler was active as a Hausmaler.The subject may refer to the events of the Northern Wars with Sweden. Poland-Lithuania had already surrendered Kiev and land east of the river Dnieper to Russia in 1686, and in 1709 the Battle of Poltava was the point at which Swedish power in Northern Europe declined and Peter the Great began to establish Russian dominance in the Baltic region; a move that had serious consequences for Poland-Lithuania leading to the late eighteenth-century partitions that brought the commonwealth to an end. As King of Poland the Saxon Elector Augustus II was drawn into the Northern Wars against Sweden that finally ended in 1721, followed by the War of Polish Succession that broke out after his death in 1733. The allegory could also refer to the later Silesian wars of the early 1740s in which Poland lost territory to Prussia, and therefore painted by a Hausmaler at a later date.
For comparison see a tankard in the Victoria and Albert Museum: http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O334523/tankard-bressler-hans-gottlieb/
On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46; Pazaurek, G. E., 1925, Deutsche Fayence und Porzellan Hausmaler.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 516-517.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1730
1730
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1987.0896.40
catalog number
1987.0896.40
accession number
1987.0896
collector/donor number
953
Lidless pot-bellied measure with a flared rim and convex, molded base; Scot's gill size. Two incised lines around rim and above and below belly, one at base. Strap handle has a flat, stepped thumbrest and short, flat lower terminal; oval attachment. No marks.Currently not on view
Description
Lidless pot-bellied measure with a flared rim and convex, molded base; Scot's gill size. Two incised lines around rim and above and below belly, one at base. Strap handle has a flat, stepped thumbrest and short, flat lower terminal; oval attachment. No marks.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1690-1730
ID Number
DL.67.0210
catalog number
67.0210
accession number
250853
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1730-1735
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.P-47ab
catalog number
P-47ab
accession number
225282
TITLE: Meissen tea caddyMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H. 4⅛" 10.5cmOBJECT NAME: Tea caddyPLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: ca.
Description
TITLE: Meissen tea caddy
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H. 4⅛" 10.5cm
OBJECT NAME: Tea caddy
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: ca. 1725-1730
SUBJECT: Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1983.0565.02ab
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 692
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: “28” in gold (gold painter’s number).
PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1947.
This tea caddy 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 tea caddy of a hexagonal baluster shape has six panels divided by single gold-painted flutes in which harbor scenes are painted in overglaze black enamel known as Schwarzlot; a transparent enamel painted onto the surface of the glaze and then scratched through to achieve a quality not unlike an etched and engraved print from which the Meissen painters derived many of their subjects. This caddy is painted in the style of Christian Friedrich Herold. Alternating scenes of merchants striking deals and laborers preparing cargo fill the panels, while on the lid a vignette depicts a figure sitting before two barrels.
Ideas for enamel painted harbor scenes came from the large number of prints, often 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). In these scenes Dutch merchants are seen conducting business with their foreign counterparts. These merchant subjects (Kauffahrtei) drew on the global trade in luxury goods and commodities from India, the Far and Near East, a trade that held high interest for the consumers of exotic goods fascinated by their origin in distant cultures.
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. On-glaze gold decoration was the work of specialist gold painters and polishers.
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. This tea caddy shape was modeled from a silver prototype in 1715 by the court goldsmith Johann Jacob Irminger (1635-1724) and remained in production until the early 1730s.
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 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: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 110-111.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1725-1730
ca 1725-1730
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1983.0565.02ab
accession number
1983.0565
catalog number
1983.0565.02ab
collector/donor number
692ab
TITLE: Meissen saucer (Hausmaler)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen saucer (Hausmaler)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: D. 4⅞" 12.4cm
OBJECT NAME: Saucer
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1720-1725
SUBJECT: Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 73.177
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 250
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: None
PURCHASED FROM: Minerva Antiques, New York, 1943.
This 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 saucer 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 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, dismissed, and sometimes imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.
The saucer was painted in Augsburg in the 1730s, probably by Anna Elizabeth Wald (b.1696), the daughter of gold worker and Hausmaler Johann Aufenwerth (d. 1728). Two hundred years earlier Augsburg was the center of international merchant banking, and it is no coincidence that it was also a center for goldsmith 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.
The subject painted in onglaze enamel and framed in a cartouche painted in purple, iron-red, and gold, is of an alchemist who watches a crucible smoking on a furnace while his assistant weighs materials behind a table to his right. On the table between them vapors emerge from a large flask. Alchemical subjects occur quite frequently in chinoiseries of this period when alchemy in Europe had an ambiguous status between practices in the transformation of natural materials that had useful and productive outcomes, assaying of metal ores, and the manufacture of colors for example, and that of charlatanry.
For a comparable object see Siegfried Ducret, Meissner Porzellan bemalt in Augsburg, 1718 bis um 1750, Band 1, Braunschweig: Klinkhardt & Biermann, 1971, plate 377.
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 history of alchemy see Principe, L., 2012, The Secrets of Alchemy.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 508-509.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1725-1730
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.73.177
catalog number
73.177
accession number
308538
collector/donor number
250
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue and “13” in gold (gold painter’s number).PURCHASED FROM: Julius Carlebach, New York, 1944.This pair of tea bowls and saucers is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of European Porcelain. Dr.
Description
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue and “13” in gold (gold painter’s number).
PURCHASED FROM: Julius Carlebach, New York, 1944.
This pair of tea bowls and saucers 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 tea bowls and saucers form part of a richly decorated tea service with the tea caddy (ID number 1982.0796.08). Elaborate leaf and strapwork (Laub- und Bandelwerk)frames contain overglaze enamel painted Kauffahrtei scenes in which merchants of European and foreign origin conduct business, direct the handling of cargo, and observe shipping activity offshore.
Sources for harbor scenes came from the large number of prints after paintings by Dutch and Flemish 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). Many of these harbor and waterside scenes were imaginary, and paintings of existing locations were often altered by the artist. Meissen painters were encouraged to use their imagination in enamel painting using the prints as a guide. 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. Decorative scrollwork was the responsibility of another painter specializing in this form of decoration.
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 aristocratic and business elites of European society.
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 prints see Goddard, S.H., 1984, Sets and Series: Scenes from the Low Countries; Schloss, C. S., 1982, Travel, Trade, and Temptation: The Dutch Italianate Harbor Scene.
On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136.
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. 116-117.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1735
ID Number
1982.0796.09Aab
catalog number
1982.0796.09Aab
accession number
1982.0796
collector/donor number
479Aab
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1730-1736
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.P-1051ab
catalog number
P-1051ab
accession number
225282
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; impressed Maltese cross in a circle (former's mark).PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1952.PROVENANCE: Ex Coll. Dr.
Description
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; impressed Maltese cross in a circle (former's mark).
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1952.
PROVENANCE: Ex Coll. Dr. Max Strauss, Vienna, Austria.
This rinsing bowl is part of 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 collector and New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962), formerly of Frankfurt-am-Main in Germany. 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 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 bowl was once part of a tea and coffee service onto which were painted topographical scenes of Saxon places of interest. Featured on the bowl is the Königstein Fortress, built on the top of the rocky prominence in the center left of the image, which lies south of Dresden close to the river Elbe seen on the right. The fortress, which still exists, stands on an outcrop of sandstone sculpted over millenia by the waters of the Elbe, and it is situated in a region unique to this part of south-eastern Germany known as Saxon Switzerland, later to become a landscape fascinating to early nineteenth century painters like Caspar David Friedrich. The second painting depicts the Sonnenstein castle above the town of Pirna, which lies south-east of Dresden on the banks of the Elbe. In the sixteenth century Pirna flourished as a merchant town, and was a center for Protestant minorities seeking refuge from persecution in Catholic Central Europe. Bernardo Belotto/Caneletto (1721-1780), the nephew of Giovanni Antonio Caneletto (1697-1768), his pupil and assistant in Venice before leaving to study in Rome, painted several scenes of Pirna, but at the Meissen Manufactory both these images, painted in onglaze enamels, were after engravings executed in 1726 by Johann Alexander Thiele (1685-1752). Thiele painted many landscapes of Saxon sites, and among his pupils were artists who later developed what became known as the Dresden landscape school, active until well into the nineteenth century. The bowl is an example of Meissen’s use of sources from the work of contemporary artists, an exchange made possible through the increasing volume of prints supplied to the manufactory. (Marx, H., Die Schoensten Ansichten aus Sachsen: Johann Alexander Thiele (1685-1752) zum 250 Todestag, 2002).
The bowl has a sea-green ground color, and the images in the reserves are painted in polychrome enamels. The interior and exterior gold scrollwork and foot ring frame the piece. The interior has another miniature landscape that remains unidentified and is probably imaginary, surrounded by elaborate scrollwork in purple and iron-red enamels and gold. When part of a tea and coffee service, the bowl was used to take the last dregs of a beverage before a cup was rinsed and refilled. It is likely that a service of this kind was not much used in a practical sense, but put on display for admiration.
The sea-green ground color was one of several enamel color grounds developed at Meissen and applied to the surface of the glaze by flicking a brush loaded with enamel color onto a sticky vegetable gum applied over the glaze; reserves were masked out preserving the white surface for the painted image. The gum evaporated in the firing and the color fused into the softened glaze. Later ground laying techniques used powdered color applied with a pad, usually made of cotton fabric or suede, which had the advantage of producing a more even density and depth of color. In today's ceramic industry, solid color grounds are most often applied with automated screening techniques, or in studio with a spray gun powered by a compressor.
See a milk pot from this service in Pietsch, U., Early Meissen Porcelain: the Wark Collection from the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, 2011, p.379; for a sugar bowl see The Rita and Fritz Markus Collection of European Ceramics and Enamels, Museum of FIne Arts, Boston, 1984, p. 128.
Syz, H., Rückert, R., Miller, J. J. II., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 292-293.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1735
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1983.0565.43
collector/donor number
893
accession number
1983.0565
catalog number
1983.0565.43
TITLE: Meissen plate (Hausmaler)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen plate (Hausmaler)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: D. 8¼" 21 cm
OBJECT NAME: Plate
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1725-1730 Meissen
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.43
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 376
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.
PURCHASED FROM: Alice Sydnam, New York, 1943.
This plate 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.
This plate 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. 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 plate was painted in the mid-eighteenth century in the workshop of Franz Ferdinand Mayer (b. 1727) of Pressnitz (now Přísečnice in the Czech Republic). Mayer’s workshop specialized in the enamel painting of allegorical subjects, hunting scenes, landscapes and pastoral subjects as seen in this plate. He was a conventional painter, and Hausmalerei was a separate business in which Mayer himself and workshop employees likely completed part or all of the enamel painting for a commission. Bold and elaborate gold scrollwork is also characteristic of his workshop.
On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46; Pazaurek, G. E., 1925, Deutsche Fayence und Porzellan Hausmaler.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert,1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp.540-541.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1725-1730
1725-1730
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1987.0896.43
catalog number
1987.0896.43
accession number
1987.0896
collector/donor number
376
TITLE: Meissen tray (Hausmaler)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: L. 10⅜" 26.3cm; W.
Description
TITLE: Meissen tray (Hausmaler)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: L. 10⅜" 26.3cm; W. 7⅛" 18.1cm
OBJECT NAME: Tray
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: 1983.0565. 68
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 493
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords and a “Z” in underglaze blue.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.
This tray 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 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 tray was made in the Meissen manufactory but decorated 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 tray was made from the new Meissen porcelain body that used feldspar as a flux to reduce the temperature at which the kaolin vitrified; it has a cold white glaze, rather than the creamier quality of the Böttger porcelains that used alabaster as a flux.
On this tray the underglaze blue decoration of Chinese figures in a garden was painted at Meissen in the early 1730s, probably by Friedrich August Zimmerman who used the letter “Z” to mark his work. The Hausmaler painted gold over the interior of the tray, and engraved a scene of European figures in a garden over the Chinese originals. Only by transmitted light can we see the scene painted by Zimmerman in underglaze blue.
On the Augsburg Hausmaler and the technique of gold engraving 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. 502-503.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1730-1735
ca 1730
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1983.0565.68
accession number
1983.0565
catalog number
1983.0565.68
collector/donor number
493
Plain-rim circular plate with flat well scored around perimeter; no foot ring. Underside struck "M C / 1778" in incuse serif letters; a faint, partial touch or quality mark of "LONDON" in scrolled reserve above.Currently not on view
Description
Plain-rim circular plate with flat well scored around perimeter; no foot ring. Underside struck "M C / 1778" in incuse serif letters; a faint, partial touch or quality mark of "LONDON" in scrolled reserve above.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
after 1735
ca 1778
ID Number
DL.388312
catalog number
388312
accession number
182022
TITLE: Meissen coffeepot and coverMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H. 7½" 19.1cmOBJECT NAME: CoffeepotPLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: ca.
Description
TITLE: Meissen coffeepot and cover
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H. 7½" 19.1cm
OBJECT NAME: Coffeepot
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: ca. 1730-1735
SUBJECT: Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1983.0565.03ab
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 892ab
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; incised cross.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1952.
This coffeepot is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began collecting 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 coffeepot and cover have white reserves in a dark blue underglaze ground featuring waterside scenes with on the one side of the pot a small vessel moored on a riverbank, and on the other a riverbank and landscape with two figures and two trees in the foreground. On the cover are two harbor scenes.
Sources for harbor scenes and waterside 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, but especially the work of Jan van Goyen (1596-1656), Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), and Johann Wilhelm Baur (d.1640). 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.
In the eighteenth century tea, coffee, and chocolate was served in the private apartments of aristocratic women, usually in the company of other women, but also with male admirers and intimates present. In affluent middle-class households tea and coffee drinking was often the occasion for an informal family gathering. Coffee houses were almost exclusively male establishments and operated as gathering places for a variety of purposes in the interests of commerce, politics, culture, and social pleasure.
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. On-glaze gold decoration was the work of other specialists in this type of ornamentation.
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 history of coffee drinking see Weinberg, B.A., Bealer, B.K., 2002, The World of Caffeine:The Science and Culture of the World’s Most Popular Drug
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. 114-115.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1730-1735
1730-1735
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1983.0565.03ab
accession number
1983.0565
catalog number
1983.0565.03ab
collector/donor number
892ab
TITLE: Meissen cup and saucerMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H. 1½" 3.8cm; Saucer: D.
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:1740-45
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1989.0715.08 a,b
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 521 a,b
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “A” in purple (painter’s mark); “63” impressed on saucer; “E” impressed on cup.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.
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 cup and saucer have yellow onglaze grounds on their exteriors. German flowers (deutsche Blumen) are painted in overglaze enamel on the two white reserves on the cup and on the interior of the saucer.
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, among other publications, to Johann Wilhelm Weinmann’s Phytantoza Iconographia (Nuremberg 1737-1745), in which many of the plates were engraved after drawings by the outstanding botanical illustrator Georg Dionys Ehret (1708-1770). The more formally correct German flowers were superseded by mannered flowers (manier Blumen), depicted in a looser and somewhat overblown style based on the work of still-life flower painters and interior designers like Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699) and Louis Tessier (1719?-1781), later referred to as “naturalistic” flowers.
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.
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.
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. 366-367.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1730
1745
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1989.0715.08ab
catalog number
1989.0715.08ab
accession number
1989.0715
collector/donor number
521
Jersey measure or flagon with double-acorn thumb piece, engraved "C. H. M." in serif letters on face of handle; quart size. Wedge extension is burnt to the plain, pointed and pouted lid; one end of hinge pin is impressed with a flower.
Description
Jersey measure or flagon with double-acorn thumb piece, engraved "C. H. M." in serif letters on face of handle; quart size. Wedge extension is burnt to the plain, pointed and pouted lid; one end of hinge pin is impressed with a flower. Plain body with a slightly flared rim and an incised, flared base. Strap handle with short terminal; circular strut. Partial touchmark inside lid "IDSX" in raised serif letters with a star above, all in a circle. Several partial incuse marks on bottom exterior, including "x's, "P"s, and "*"s.
Maker is John de St. Croix, Jersey, Channel Islands or London, England, working 1730-1765.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1729-1730
ca 1730-1765
ID Number
DL.67.0165
catalog number
67.0165
accession number
250853
Tankard with a raised stepped-and-domed lid and straight tapered sides with applied moldings around rim, midbody and base; no finial. Cast S-curve scroll thumbpiece attaches to five-knuckle hinge with pendant drop.
Description
Tankard with a raised stepped-and-domed lid and straight tapered sides with applied moldings around rim, midbody and base; no finial. Cast S-curve scroll thumbpiece attaches to five-knuckle hinge with pendant drop. Hollow, D-section, S-curve handle with rounded spade terminal; no strut. Bottom underside inscribed "W*M to I*C" in engraved shaded serif letters and lightly incised "JS". Struck with four marks on exterior below rim to right of handle and on interior of lid: "HP" in raised script between stars in a curvilinear surround; a lion passant facing left in a rectangle; a crowned leopard's head in a pentagonal surround; and the raised serif date letter "Q" in a pentagonal surround. Centerpoints on lid exterior and bottom underside.
Mark was used by Humphrey Payne of London, England, between 1726 and 1738.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1731
ID Number
DL.391176
catalog number
391176
accession number
189508
Small Angers type shouldered flagon or pichet with an almost flat, flared base, nine-lobed shell or anthemion thumb piece, and upturned wedge extension burnt to the ridged, heart-shaped, pouted lid. Numerous pairs of incised lines around cupped rim, body and flared base.
Description
Small Angers type shouldered flagon or pichet with an almost flat, flared base, nine-lobed shell or anthemion thumb piece, and upturned wedge extension burnt to the ridged, heart-shaped, pouted lid. Numerous pairs of incised lines around cupped rim, body and flared base. Strap handle with stepped thumbrest and short square terminal. Handle face engraved "P:G". Bottom underside struck with two partial touchmarks, "U(?)*ALLA[IN]" surrounding an imperial crown in a bead-bordered surround and crowned interlocking "C"s above "ANGERS" in a circle.
Maker identified as Francois Allain, 1732.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1732
ID Number
DL.67.0283
catalog number
67.0283
accession number
250853
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1735
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.P-724
catalog number
P-724
accession number
225282
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1730
ID Number
DL.61.0463
catalog number
61.0463
accession number
231316
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
According to family information, Jane Alcock made this counterpane in a convent school in England a few years before running away to Barbados and marrying William Atlee (1696-1744) on June 1, 1734. A few weeks later the couple settled in Philadelphia.
Description
According to family information, Jane Alcock made this counterpane in a convent school in England a few years before running away to Barbados and marrying William Atlee (1696-1744) on June 1, 1734. A few weeks later the couple settled in Philadelphia. Jane was born in 1695 in England and died in 1777 in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.
The scrollwork-and-flower design is appliquéd, held in place by a linen-thread cord, on a dark blue satin ground. The elegant counterpane remained in the family until its donation in 1985.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1720-1734
maker
Alcock, Jane
ID Number
1985.0154.01
catalog number
1985.0154.01
accession number
1985.0154
Pot-bellied measure with a tongued, scroll thumb piece, engraved "IT.MF" in serif letters on belly to right of handle; Scot's pint size. Ridged, wedge extension is burnt to the flat-domed lid, which has one incised circle around center and a pair near rim.
Description
Pot-bellied measure with a tongued, scroll thumb piece, engraved "IT.MF" in serif letters on belly to right of handle; Scot's pint size. Ridged, wedge extension is burnt to the flat-domed lid, which has one incised circle around center and a pair near rim. Body has a molded, flared rim and convex pedestal base with two incised lines around neck, three at shoulder, and two around base. S-scrolled handle with five-knuckle hinge, ridged thumbrest and unusual, pyramid-top bud terminal; conical strut. Interior with plouk or pimple below rim indicating capacity level. Flat bottom has one incised circle outside and circular touchmark of Lachlan Dallas of Inverness inside.
Maker is Lachlan Dallas of Inverness, working 1720-1753.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1700
ca 1730
ID Number
DL.67.0212
catalog number
67.0212
accession number
250853
Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1735
ID Number
CE.P-728ab
catalog number
P-728ab
accession number
225282
Shallow, fluted dish engraved at center of flat well "Z. \ G / M / 1.7.32" in shaded roman letters framed by two branches of flowers tied by a bowknot at bottom. Scalloped wrigglework bands around perimeter of well and plain edge.
Description
Shallow, fluted dish engraved at center of flat well "Z. \ G / M / 1.7.32" in shaded roman letters framed by two branches of flowers tied by a bowknot at bottom. Scalloped wrigglework bands around perimeter of well and plain edge. Well underside has two faint partial touchmarks attributed to Francis Bassett I, featuring a lion passant facing left over the raised roman initials "F*B".
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1732
ID Number
1986.0027.01
catalog number
1986.0027.01
accession number
1986.0027

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