Domestic Furnishings

Tiffany Floor Lamp

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.

Date: 1760s

Meissen plate

TITLE: Meissen: Pair of PlatesMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen: Pair of Plates
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: D. 9⅞" 25.1cm
OBJECT NAME: Plates
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1760
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 63.244. AB
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 378 AB
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “22” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Arthur S. Vernay, New York, 1943.
These plates 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 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.
Sprays of natural flowers take up the center of these plates. The reserves on the flanges frame paintings in onglaze enamel of songbirds perched on branches that were likely based on hand-colored plates from Eleazar Albin’s (1713-1759) two volume work A Natural History of Birds, first published in London in 1731, with a second edition in 1738. The Meissen manufactory had a copy of the work, one of the earliest illustrated books on birds that Albin completed with his daughter Elizabeth. Keeping caged songbirds was popular with many people across a broad spectrum of the eighteenth-century middle class and nobility, and their decorative potential was exploited especially in wall coverings, textiles, and ceramics.
The specialist bird painters (Vogelmaler) at Meissen were low in number compared to the flower painters, but the term “color painter” (Buntmaler) was a fluid term indicating that painters moved from one category to another as demand required, especially for flower, fruit and bird subjects.
The low relief pattern on the flanges of the plates is the so-called “New Dulong” (Neu Dulong) pattern named for the Amsterdam merchant who was a dealer for Meissen. Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) recorded modeling a trial plate for a table service for Monsieur Dulong in June 1743. The process of creating shallow relief patterns was laborious and required considerable skill, and the “New Dulong” pattern was one of the first to break away from the formality of the basket weave designs to introduce a flowing pattern in the rococo style.
These plates belong to the same or similar pattern as the tureen, cover, and stand (ID number 1992.0427.20 abc.)
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 relief decoration see Reinheckel, G., 1968, ‘Plastiche Dekorationsformen im Meissner Porzellan des 18 Jahrhunderts’ in Keramos, 41/42, Juli/Oktober , p. 103, 104, 77-No. 60.
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, pp. 412-413.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.63.244B
catalog number
63.244B
accession number
250446
collector/donor number
378k

Meissen milk pot

TITLE: Meissen milk pot and coverMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H.
Description
TITLE: Meissen milk pot and cover
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H. 6⅛" 15.6cm
OBJECT NAME: Milk pot
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1750-1760
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 67.1043.a,b
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1180
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “63” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: The Art Exchange, New York, 1961.
This milk pot 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 pear-shaped milk pot has a scene of a leopard attacking a horse ridden by a man in oriental apparel. A cub lies to the right foreground of the scene and the decapitated body of a man lies on the left. Scenes of animals fighting one another are on the reverse side. On the cover we can see a stag and a hunting dog. Painted for the most part in overglaze purple enamel there are a few accents in other colors with gold decoration on the handle, spout, and rim.
Animal subjects, especially hunting scenes, were specialist genres for many artists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Since the sixteenth century European infiltration into distant continents brought awareness of animal species that fed the desire to collect wild creatures, alive or dead, for the menageries and cabinets of curiosities of the educated and ruling elites. In Dresden, court entertainment included the bloody spectacle of watching wild animals fight until death, not at all unlike the spectacles of the ancient Roman world. Artists like Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) began to focus on the drama of animal and human encounters in which viewers could engage with the psychological pressure of danger through imagination. The images on this milk jug represent the struggle between predatory animals, a lion and a leopard on the reverse and an imminent struggle between the man on horseback and the animal. A subspecies of leopard, the Anatolian pars is native to Turkey.
To present day sensibilities the grisly subjects represented here may seem out of place on a tea and coffee service associated with polite social rituals, but eighteenth-century sensibilities and interests were different in many respects from those of today. People of all classes took a full-bloodied interest in violent events, from the military battle to the public execution, and vicarious engagement took place through the visual arts, storytelling, popular theater and street spectacles. For the intellectually curious animals were objects of study in attempts to understand better the nature of human beings in relation to the wild.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes, 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. Ornamental gold painting was the responsibility of another specialist worker.
On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136.
On animal imagery see Silver, L., "World of Wonder: Exotic Animals in European Imagery, 1515-1650", in Cuneo, P. F. (ed.), 2014, Animals and Early Modern Identity, pp.291-327.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 316-317.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750-1760
1750-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.67.1043ab
catalog number
67.1043ab
collector/donor number
1180
accession number
276588

Fork

Two-tined, silver pistol-grip fork with engraved armorial device on hollow handle depicting crest of a mermaid or siren with flowing hair and textured skin in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath. Straight tines with U-shaped root on smooth baluster shaft.
Description
Two-tined, silver pistol-grip fork with engraved armorial device on hollow handle depicting crest of a mermaid or siren with flowing hair and textured skin in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath. Straight tines with U-shaped root on smooth baluster shaft. No marks. From a set of 12 knives and 12 forks stored in original shagreen-covered case, 1978.2424.01-.025.
date made
1740 - 1760
ID Number
1978.2424.15
accession number
1978.2424
catalog number
1978.2424.15

Meissen milk pot (part of a service)

TITLE: Meissen tea and coffee service (incomplete)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Coffeepot and cover: H. 9¼" 23.5cm; Cream jug and cover: H. 5⅜" 13.7cm;Teapot and cover: H. 4½" 11.4cm; Rinsing bowl: H.
Description
TITLE: Meissen tea and coffee service (incomplete)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Coffeepot and cover: H. 9¼" 23.5cm; Cream jug and cover: H. 5⅜" 13.7cm;
Teapot and cover: H. 4½" 11.4cm; Rinsing bowl: H. 3⅜" 8.5cm;
Sugar bowl and cover: H. 4¼" 10.8cm; Cup and saucer (468): Cup: H. 2¾" 7cm,
Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3 cm; Cup and saucer (469) Cup: H. 1¾" 4.5cm,
Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3cm;
Tea bowl and saucer: Bowl: H. 1¾" 4.5cm; Saucer: D. 2¾" 7cm
OBJECT NAME: Tea and coffee service
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1750-1760
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: The Hans Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 61.69 A-H
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 462-470 A-H
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “W” in purple on most pieces (painter’s mark); various impressed numbers (2,4,24,53,59,64,66).
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.
This milk pot is from a tea and coffee service 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 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.
All the items from this tea set have elaborate overglaze polychrome rococo cartouches of vines, scrolls, and trellises framing harbor scenes with accessory figures at work on or near the water, and pastoral scenes featuring the elegant so-called “Watteau” figures. Sources for enamel painted harbor scenes and landscapes came from the vast number of prints after paintings by Italian, Dutch, and Flemish masters of the seventeenth century that formed a major part of Meissen’s output from the early 1730s until the 1760s. 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) and Jan van de Velde (1593-1641). Here the idealized landscapes and harbor scenes form the setting through which the nobility and landed gentry walk, ride, and take their ease, surveying their possessions removed from the formality of the court.
In the early 1740s the manufactory began to acquire a collection of copperplate engravings on which the Meissen painters based their “Watteauszenen” (Watteau scenes), and they became so much in demand that eleven painters were appointed to specialize in work on this theme. Meissen used the shapes of the pieces in this service many times with some variation on details like handles, spouts, and finials.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes and subjects with figures 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. Gold painted decoration was applied by Meissen workers who specialised in the technique.
The “W” painted in purple possibly refers to the painter’s mark of Johann Benjamin Wentzel (or Wenzel 1696?-1765) who appears in the Meissen records as a painter of “landscapes and views” in 1750.
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. See Stephen H. Goddard, 1984, Sets and Series: Prints from the Low Countries; 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. 334-335.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1750-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.61.69Bab
catalog number
61.69Bab
collector/donor number
463
accession number
240074

Meissen figure of a flute player: Gallant Orchestra

MARK: No mark visiblePURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941.The figure of a flute player is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr.
Description
MARK: No mark visible
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941.
The figure of a flute player 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.
Meissen figures of this period evolved under the court sculptor Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) who became Modellmeister or master modeler at Meissen in 1733. It was he who established the appropriate scale and style for porcelain figures, informed by his training as a sculptor in other materials, and by the sensuous drama of baroque form. Kaendler introduced a novel type of small-scale sculpture in a new material imitated by numerous porcelain manufactories in Europe.
The flute player formed part of a large group known as the “Galant Orchestra” (Galante Kapelle), modeled between 1750 and 1760 by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) with his assistant Friedrich Elias Meyer (1724-1785). The colorful and lively figures in the orchestra represent Dresden courtiers, not professional musicians and singers, and were used for table decoration to augment the confectioners’ art of creating sugar or marzipan sculptures hardened with tragacanth. They were also collectable objects for display in cabinets, and increasingly attractive to the entrepreneurial class that grew in numbers and wealth during the mid to late eighteenth century.
The Dresden court under Electors August II and Friedrich August III was renowned throughout Europe for its fine composers and the excellence of its musicians who performed at the opera and theater, for religious ceremonies, court entertainments, festivals, and hunts. Major composers and musicians who worked for the Dresden court for all or part of their careers included Johann David Heinichen (1683-1729); bass player and composer Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745); violinist and composer Johann Georg Pisandel (1687-1755); Johann Adolf Hasse (1699-1783) and his wife the soprano Faustina Bordoni (1697-1781); flautist, oboist, and composer Johann Joachim Quantz (1697-1773). The Meissen figure of the flute player has a recorder lying by his feet, and at about the time Kaendler and Meyer modeled the Galant Orchestra in the mid-eighteenth century the recorder fell out of use in favor of the more dynamic flute which has greater sound projection and a wider tonal range. Not until the early music movement of the early to mid- twentieth century did the recorder become a professional musician’s instrument once again.
Meissen figures and figure groups are usually sculpted in special modeling clay and then carefully cut into separate pieces from which individual molds are made. Porcelain clay is then pressed into the molds and the whole figure or group reassembled to its original form, a process requiring great care and skill. The piece is then dried thoroughly before firing in the kiln. In the production of complex figure groups the work is arduous and requires the making of many molds from the original model. A version of the Gallant Orchestra is in production at Meissen today.
In the absence of a mark on this piece, and the inclusion of the recorder not seen on early models, the figure may be a nineteenth-century version, of which there are many.
On the modeling and molding process still practiced today at Meissen see Alfred Ziffer, “‘…skillfully made ready for moulding…’ The Work of Johann Joachim Kaendler” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, pp.61-67, and for further examples of the "Galante Kapelle" including the flute player see p. 360.
See chapter 2 The Court of Saxony-Dresden, in Owens, S., Reul, B. M., Stockigt, J. B., 2011, Music at German Courts, 1715-1760: Changing Artistic Priorities; Heartz, D., 2003, Music in European Capitals: the Galant Style, 1720-1780.
On eighteenth-century music and theatrical life in Dresden see Petrick, R., 2011, Dresdens bürgerliches Musik-und Theaterleben im 18. Jahrhundert. As long as Dresden citizens were well dressed, they were permitted to attend music and drama events hosted by the Elector or members of the court.
This object is not illustrated in the Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei. Many of these figures were reproduced in the nineteenth century, and without a mark the status of this object is open to question.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1750-60
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1992.0427.04
accession number
1992.0427
catalog number
1992.0427.04
collector/donor number
29

Meissen cup and saucer (part of a service)

TITLE: Meissen: Part of a tea serviceMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Coffeepot: H.7" 17.8cm; Teapot: 4⅜" 11.1cm; Cups H. 2" 5.1cm; Saucers: D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen: Part of a tea service
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Coffeepot: H.7" 17.8cm; Teapot: 4⅜" 11.1cm; Cups H. 2" 5.1cm; Saucers: D. 5¾" 14.6cm
OBJECT NAME: Tea service
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1745-1760
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1983.0565.52a,b; 53a,b; 54AB
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 147a,b; 148a,b;149AB
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; Maltese cross impressed on coffeepot; “53” impressed on saucers.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.
These pieces 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 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.
Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony (reg. 1733-1763), ordered a large service for Tsarina Elizabeth of Russia (reg. 1741-1761) on the occasion of the marriage of her nephew Karl Peter Ulrich Duke of Holstein-Gottorf (later Tsar Peter III, reg. 1761-1762) to Princess Sophia Augusta Frederica of Anhalt-Zerbst (laterTsarina Catherine II, reg. 1762-1796). The service was one of the early diplomatic gifts produced at Meissen on a large scale, and included a tea and coffee service in the 400 items sent to Russia in 1745.
Unpainted sections on this service are decorated with the “raised flowers” (erhabene Blumen) in relief; a pattern modeled for a service in 1741and ordered two or three years later by the Berlin merchant, art dealer, and porcelain entrepreneur Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky (1710-1775). The enamel painted sections contain the double-headed imperial eagle with St. George on the pectoral shield, which is one of the emblems on the chain of the Imperial Order of St. Andrew First Called, and the cross of St Andrew can be seen on the saucers. The Order of St. Andrew was founded in 1698 by Tsar Peter I the Great. The naturalistic German flowers are painted in overglaze enamel in a style that followed the German woodcut flowers (Holzschnittblumen) that appear on the service for the Tsarina, indicating that these pieces were a later addition to the service, or made at a later date for the Russian market. The gold border decorating the rims was the work of a specialist gold painter.
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 exclusively male establishments and operated as gathering places for a variety of purposes in the interests of commerce, politics, culture, and social pleasure.
On the service for Tsarina Elizabeth see Lydia Liackhova, chapter 4 “In a Porcelain Mirror: Reflections of Russia from Peter I to Empress Elizabeth” in Cassidy-Geiger, M., 2008, Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for European Courts 1710-63; Ulrich Pietsch “Famous Eighteenth-Century Meissen Dinner Services” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp.101-102.
On tea and coffee drinking see see Ukers, W. H., 1922, All About Coffee, and 1935, All About Tea; on the practice of drinking tea, coffee, and chocolate see Bowman, P.B., 1995, In Praise of Hot Liquors: The Study of Chocolate, Coffee and Tea-drinking 1600-1850; See also Weinberg, B.A., Bealer, B.K., 2002, The World of Caffeine: The Science and Culture of the World’s Most Popular Drug. On the coffee house see Ellis, M. 2011, The Coffee House: A Cultural History.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 290-291.
Location
Currently on loan
date made
ca 1745-1760
1745-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1983.0565.54Bab
catalog number
1983.0565.54Bab
accession number
1983.0565
collector/donor number
149b

Tankard by silversmith Samuel Minott

The maker of this tankard is Samuel Minott (1732-1803) of Boston, MA. Minott was a well-known and successful silversmith who probably apprenticed with William Holmes of Boston.
Description
The maker of this tankard is Samuel Minott (1732-1803) of Boston, MA. Minott was a well-known and successful silversmith who probably apprenticed with William Holmes of Boston. He worked as a silversmith in the Boston area, specifically in Charlestown from 1753 to 1776, partnered from 1765 to 1769 with Josiah Austin and with William Simkins in 1770. He also sold groceries and luxury items such as tea and pottery such as Delft. Minott was a Tory, prompting his arrest and confiscation of his property by the Massachusetts Council in 1776. He was not forced to relocate though and was able to reopen his business in Boston by 1786 and then became a goldsmith by 1789, and remained in business until 1803.
The tankard has a raised stepped-and-domed lid topped by a cast acorn finial and straight tapered sides with applied moldings around rim, midbody and base; body is engraved on front "HD" in conjoined foliate script inside an oval reserve framed by C scrolls, diaper patterning, and trailing pendants of flowers at sides and below. Edge of lid fits over rim of body. Cast S-curve, grooved scroll thumbpiece attaches to five-knuckle hinge with pendant drop. Hollow, D-section, S-curve handle has a domed oval terminal with large oval attachment. Bottom underside inscribed "Richard Derby to E:S Haskit Derby / 1763", above "John Derby / George Derby 1831. / Roger Derby. 1874" in engraved script by two different hands. Struck once on rim exterior to left of handle and on bottom underside above centerpoint "Minott" in raised italic serif letters in a rectangle.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1763
bequest
Michael, Arthur
maker
Minott, Samuel
ID Number
DL.383545
catalog number
383545
accession number
162866

Porringer

Bowl-shaped porringer with bulging sides, angled rim, and boss bottom with flat gutter; cast handle is pierced in a keyhole pattern with 11 voids and engraved on front "G / I*M" in shaded serif letters facing out.
Description
Bowl-shaped porringer with bulging sides, angled rim, and boss bottom with flat gutter; cast handle is pierced in a keyhole pattern with 11 voids and engraved on front "G / I*M" in shaded serif letters facing out. Struck once on back of handle "J.Clarke" in raised script in a rounded rectangle. Tiny centerpoint on bottom inside and underside. No weight engraved.
Maker is Jonathan Clarke (1706-1766); working in Newport, RI, 1734-1755, and Providence, RI, 1755-1766.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1730-1766
maker
Clarke, Jonathan
ID Number
DL.383491
catalog number
383491
accession number
162866

Meissen tea caddy

TITLE: Meissen tea caddyMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H.
Description
TITLE: Meissen tea caddy
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H. 4⅞" 12.4cm
OBJECT NAME: Tea caddy
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1750-1760
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 61.69ab
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 465
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 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 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 tea caddy is similar to the tea and coffee set (ID# 61.69 A-H), but the pattern for the rococo cartouches of vines, scrolls, and trellises is different. The subjects include harbor scenes with accessory figures at work on or near the water, and pastoral scenes featuring the elegant so-called “Watteau” figures.
Sources for enamel painted harbor scenes and landscapes came from the vast number of prints after paintings by Italian, Dutch, and Flemish masters of the seventeenth century that formed a major part of Meissen’s output from the early 1730s until the 1760s. 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) and Jan van de Velde (1593-1641). Here the idealized landscapes and harbor scenes form the setting through which the nobility and landed gentry walk, ride, and take their ease, surveying their possessions removed from the formality of the court. In the early 1740s the manufactory began to acquire a collection of copperplate engravings on which the Meissen painters based their “Watteauszenen” (Watteau scenes), and they became so much in demand that eleven painters were appointed to specialize in work on this theme. The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes and subjects with figures 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. Gold decoration was the work of other specialists in the painting division.
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.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 336-337.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750-1760
1750-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.61.69Dab
catalog number
61.69Dab
collector/donor number
465
accession number
240074

chair

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1730 - 1760
ID Number
DL.388006
catalog number
388006
accession number
182022

Meissen chocolate pot

TITLE: Meissen chocolate pot and coverMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H.
Description
TITLE: Meissen chocolate pot and cover
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H. 5½" 14cm
OBJECT NAME: Chocolate pot
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1760
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 64.441 a,b
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 310 a,b
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “38” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.
This chocolate pot 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 purple scale pattern forming a wide band on the neck of the pot and on the rim of the cover frames onglaze enamel paintings of exotic birds perched on foliage. Although not as common as flower patterns Meissen produced several of these tea and coffee services with bird subjects framed by the scale pattern in blue or purple (see the cup and saucer, ID number 1992.0427.05 a,b). The silver gilt chain attached to the cover and handle of the pot is probably contemporary with the piece.
Porcelain painters did not always copy faithfully from their sources, using them as a base from which to decorate three-dimensional forms. Although the birds on the chocolate pot look like exotic fantasy birds they could be based on the Chinese painted pheasant, a richly colored fowl imported to Europe from China and kept in aviaries popular with the European nobility. In his Natural History of Uncommon Birds (London 1743-1751) George Edwards depicted the painted pheasant from one “newly dead” and given to him by the “Lady of Sir John Heathcote.” He notes that “these birds of late are frequently brought from China: I have seen several of them in the Possession of our Nobility, and some curious Gentlemen…” and that they “bear the English climate well.” (page and plate 68 of Volume II). It is highly likely that such birds were kept in the court aviaries at the Moritzburg Castle near Dresden.
George Edwards’ plates from the Natural History of Uncommon Birds were used by the engraver Johann Michael Seligmann on which to base his hand-colored plates for his Sammlung Verschiedener Auslandischer und Seltener Vogel (‘Collection of various foreign and uncommon birds’ Nuremberg 1749-1776). He also referred to Mark Catesby’s Natural History of Carolina, Florida and the Bahama Islands (London 1731-1743).
The purple scale design and the gold painted rims were the work of other specialists in the manufactory.
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 exclusively male establishments and operated as gathering places for a variety of purposes in the interests of commerce, politics, culture, and social pleasure.
Chocolate was a popular breakfast drink taken with a bread roll, but it was even more expensive than tea and coffee.
George Edwards’ Natural History of Uncommon Birds is available online at the Digital Library for the Decorative Arts and Material Culture: http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/DLDecArts/DLDecArts-idx?id=DLDecArts.NatHistEd01
For a history of chocolate 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 practice of drinking tea, coffee, and chocolate see Bowman, P.B., 1995, In Praise of Hot Liquors: The Study of Chocolate, Coffee and Tea-drinking 1600-1850; On the coffee house see Ellis, M. 2011, The Coffee House: A Cultural History.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 414-415.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1760
1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.64.441ab
catalog number
64.441ab
accession number
257835
collector/donor number
310

Spoon

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750
maker
Edwards, Samuel
ID Number
DL.383509
catalog number
383509
accession number
162866

Knife

Silver pistol-grip knife with curved blunt steel blade; engraved armorial device on hollow handle depicts crest of a mermaid or siren with flowing hair and textured skin in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath.
Description
Silver pistol-grip knife with curved blunt steel blade; engraved armorial device on hollow handle depicts crest of a mermaid or siren with flowing hair and textured skin in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath. Blade front has three incuse stamps, all partial, oriented along spine and facing handle: a dagger or trident, an imperial crown and "[B]IRD" in serif letters. From a set of 12 knives and 12 forks stored in original shagreen-covered case, 1978.2424.01-.025.
date made
1740 - 1760
ID Number
1978.2424.03
accession number
1978.2424
catalog number
1978.2424.03

Fork

Two-tined, silver pistol-grip fork with engraved armorial device on hollow handle depicting crest of a mermaid or siren with flowing hair and textured skin in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath. Straight tines with U-shaped root on smooth baluster shaft.
Description
Two-tined, silver pistol-grip fork with engraved armorial device on hollow handle depicting crest of a mermaid or siren with flowing hair and textured skin in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath. Straight tines with U-shaped root on smooth baluster shaft. No marks. From a set of 12 knives and 12 forks stored in original shagreen-covered case, 1978.2424.01-.025.
date made
1740 - 1760
ID Number
1978.2424.14
accession number
1978.2424
catalog number
1978.2424.14

Meissen plate

TITLE: Meissen plateMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen plate
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: D. 9¾"; 24.8cm
OBJECT NAME: Plate
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: Mid-eighteenth century
SUBJECT: Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 245497.3
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 12
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “22” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941. Ex. Coll. Sir Phillip Sassoon.
This circular 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 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 plate is from a large dinner service of which most pieces are Meissen but with some items made at the Höchst manufactory, presumably as replacements for the Meissen service. With a petal-shaped edge the plate has a molded foliate design on the flange and center known as the Gotzkowsky pattern, after the Berlin porcelain entrepreneur Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky (1710-1775), a pattern also known as “raised flowers” (erhabene Blumen) first modeled in 1741.
Following the appointment to the manufactory in 1733 of court sculptor Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775), modeling techniques became more sophisticated. The process of creating shallow relief patterns was laborious and required considerable skill. The sources for designs in relief came from pattern books and engravings, especially those by the French designer Jean Bérain the Elder (1638-1711), and the Nuremberg designer Paul Decker (1677-1713) among many others. Later rococo designs in the French style were disseminated through the German states principally by François Cuvilliés the Elder (1695-1768). These designs were applied in architecture, interior stucco work and wood carving, furniture, wall coverings, and ceramics.
Painted in onglaze enamel are sprays of natural flowers and on the rim there is a gold diaper pattern.
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.
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. Decoration in gold was applied by specialists in gold painting and polishing at Meissen.
On relief patterns and three dimensional modeling at Meissen see Reinheckel, G., 1968, ‘Plastiche Dekorationsformen im Meissner Porzellan des 18 Jahrhunderts’ in Keramos, 41/42, Juli/Oktober.
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.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 392-393.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1725-1765
ca 1745
1745
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.245497.1
catalog number
245497.1
accession number
245497
collector/donor number
12

Meissen figure of a gardener

TITLE: Meissen figure of a gardenerMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: 4⅛" 10.5 cm.OBJECT NAME: FigurePLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: 1750-1760SUBJECT: The Hans Syz CollectionArtDomestic Fur
Description
TITLE: Meissen figure of a gardener
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: 4⅛" 10.5 cm.
OBJECT NAME: Figure
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1750-1760
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1992.0427.08
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 71
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARK: Crossed swords in blue on unglazed base.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941.
This figure 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 first 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.
Meissen’s figures of gardeners appeared more commonly in the 1750s. Some of the figures are far too finely dressed to be serious gardeners, and the models were often based on the prints and drawings after works by artists like Antoine Watteau and François Boucher, with more refined modeling in response to the rococo style. Peter Reinicke (1715-1768) modeled several gardening subjects and these figures possibly formed part of the decorated dessert table at court banquets. Designed by the court confectioners the figures stood in elaborate gardens constructed out of a variety of materials, but the artificial did not displace natural flowers, both cut and potted they were in constant demand at court for table and interior decoration.
Gardeners were stock characters in many eighteenth-century plays and operas; like house servants they observed the lives of their masters and mistresses, sometimes becoming entangled in the plot as in Pierre-August Caron de Beaumarchais’s (1732-1799) controversial Marriage of Figaro of 1784. Gardening in eighteenth-century Europe was a lucrative commercial business for those engaged in the supply of seeds and plants to satisfy the increasing demand for stock to fill a country estate, a modest town or country garden, and even a window box in a city center. Global trade and exploration brought new and exotic plants to Europe that generated enthusiasm for gardening and hothouse cultivation.
Meissen figures and figure groups are usually sculpted in special modeling clay and then cut carefully into separate pieces from which individual molds are made. Porcelain clay is then pressed into the molds and the whole figure or group reassembled to its original form, a process requiring great care and skill. The piece is then dried thoroughly before firing in the kiln. In the production of complex figure groups the work is arduous and requires the making of many molds from the original model.
The figure is painted in overglaze enamel colors and gold.
On the global collectors who brought non-native plants to European and American gardens see Stuart, D.C., 2002, The Plants that Shaped Our Gardens.
On the modeling and molding process still practiced today at Meissen see Alfred Ziffer, “‘…skillfully made ready for moulding…’ The Work of Johann Joachim Kaendler” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, pp.61-67.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 460-461.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750-1760
1750-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1992.0427.08
accession number
1992.0427
catalog number
1992.0427.08
collector/donor number
71

Mug

Oversized, raised bulbous or bellied cann or mug engraved "JAW" on front in shaded conjoined foliate script. Applied molded rim, rounded bottom, and cast stepped circular foot.
Description
Oversized, raised bulbous or bellied cann or mug engraved "JAW" on front in shaded conjoined foliate script. Applied molded rim, rounded bottom, and cast stepped circular foot. Hollow, double C-scroll handle has a plain, cyma-curved upper terminal attached at rim and lower heel terminal with large circular attachment on belly and rectangular vent in underside. Shaded serif initials erased from face of handle "(P?) / (I?)*E". Struck once on bottom underside at centerpoint "I•L" in raised serif letters in a rounded-corner square, and once on lower face of handle "I•L" beneath a ring, all in a conforming surround.
Maker is John Leacock, Jr. (1729-1802) of Philadelphia, PA; working, circa 1750-1767. A successful gold and silversmith, Leacock purchased an estate in nearby Lower Merion, PA, and retired from the trade to take up agricultural pursuits, including viticulture. He was active in the Revolutionary cause as a popular playwright and parodist, and served as coroner of Philadelphia from 1785 until his death.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750-1767
ID Number
DL.383540
catalog number
383540
accession number
162866

Meissen tea bowl and saucer (part of a service)

TITLE: Meissen tea and coffee service (incomplete)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Coffeepot and cover: H. 9¼" 23.5cm; Cream jug and cover: H. 5⅜" 13.7cm;Teapot and cover: H. 4½" 11.4cm; Rinsing bowl: H.
Description
TITLE: Meissen tea and coffee service (incomplete)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Coffeepot and cover: H. 9¼" 23.5cm; Cream jug and cover: H. 5⅜" 13.7cm;
Teapot and cover: H. 4½" 11.4cm; Rinsing bowl: H. 3⅜" 8.5cm;
Sugar bowl and cover: H. 4¼" 10.8cm; Cup and saucer (468): Cup: H. 2¾" 7cm,
Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3 cm; Cup and saucer (469) Cup: H. 1¾" 4.5cm,
Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3cm;
Tea bowl and saucer: Bowl: H. 1¾" 4.5cm; Saucer: D. 2¾" 7cm
OBJECT NAME: Tea and coffee service
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1750-1760
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: The Hans Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 61.69 A-H
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 462-470 A-H
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “W” in purple on most pieces (painter’s mark); various impressed numbers (2,4,24,53,59,64,66).
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.
This tea bowl and saucer is from a tea and coffee service 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 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.
All the items from this tea and coffee service have elaborate overglaze polychrome rococo cartouches of vines, scrolls, and trellises framing harbor scenes with accessory figures at work on or near the water, and pastoral scenes featuring the elegant so-called “Watteau” figures. Sources for enamel painted harbor scenes and landscapes came from the vast number of prints after paintings by Italian, Dutch, and Flemish masters of the seventeenth century that formed a major part of Meissen’s output from the early 1730s until the 1760s. 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) and Jan van de Velde (1593-1641). Here the idealized landscapes and harbor scenes form the setting through which the nobility and landed gentry walk, ride, and take their ease, surveying their possessions removed from the formality of the court. In the early 1740s the manufactory began to acquire a collection of copperplate engravings on which the Meissen painters based their “Watteauszenen” (Watteau scenes), and they became so much in demand that eleven painters were appointed to specialize in work on this theme. Meissen used the shapes of the pieces in this service many times with some variation on details like handles, spouts, and finials.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes and subjects with figures 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.
The “W” painted in purple possibly refers to the painter’s mark of Johann Benjamin Wentzel (or Wenzel 1696?-1765) who appears in the Meissen records as a painter of “landscapes and views” in 1750.
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 and prints 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. 334-335.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1750-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.61.69Hab
catalog number
61.69Hab
accession number
240074
collector/donor number
470

Knife

Pistol-grip handled knife with blunt, curved and tapered blade; engraved crest on handle back or non-mark side depicts a mermaid or siren, with flowing hair and textured skin, in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath.
Description
Pistol-grip handled knife with blunt, curved and tapered blade; engraved crest on handle back or non-mark side depicts a mermaid or siren, with flowing hair and textured skin, in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath. Blade front has three incuse stamps oriented along spine and facing handle: a dagger or trident, an imperial crown and "[B]IRD" in serif letters. From a set of 12 knives and 12 forks stored in original shagreen-covered case, 1978.2424.01-.025.
date made
1740 - 1760
ID Number
1978.2424.06
accession number
1978.2424
catalog number
1978.2424.06

chair, wing

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1750 - 1760
ID Number
DL.391790
catalog number
391790
accession number
71679

Meissen figure of a child wigmaker

TITLE: Meissen figure of Cupid with wigstandMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: 3⅜", 8.5 cmOBJECT NAME: FigurePLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: 1750-1760SUBJECT: The Hans Syz CollectionArtDome
Description
TITLE: Meissen figure of Cupid with wigstand
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: 3⅜", 8.5 cm
OBJECT NAME: Figure
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1750-1760
SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 1992.0427.17
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 281
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: None
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.
This figure 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 Meissen cupids, ‘costumed cupids ‘or putti in disguise, represent a large group of about eighty figures modeled by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) in the 1750s and remodeled by Michel Victor Acier1736-1799) after the Seven Years War in 1764. Usually, but not always, identified by the presence of wings on their backs, cupids represent many of the trades and artisanal activities, the Italian Comedy characters, and allegorical subjects of the larger figures. This figure features the artisan trade of the wigmaker.
Cupids, or putti, tumble through the skies in Italian paintings of the seventeenth-century Baroque period. They are present in sacred and secular architecture rolling and gamboling through churches and palaces, supporting and framing the sculptures of both religious and allegorical subjects. Their antecedents were angelic in the Christian religion, and in pagan antiquity Cupid or Eros was the agent for the arousal of sexual desire. The eighteenth-century French painter François Boucher (1703-1770), strongly influenced by Italian painting during his studies in Italy, painted most of his classical subjects with chubby putti emphasizing the representation of amorous desire.
Meissen figures and figure groups are usually sculpted in special modeling clay and then cut carefully into separate pieces from which individual molds are made. Porcelain clay is then pressed into the molds and the whole figure or group reassembled to its original form, a process requiring great care and skill. The piece is then dried thoroughly before firing in the kiln. In the production of complex figure groups the work is arduous and requires the making of many molds from the original model.
The figure is painted in overglaze enamel colors .
On Cupid see Grafton, A., Most, G.W., Settis, S., eds. 2010, The Classical Tradition, pp.244-246.
On the modeling and molding process still practiced today at Meissen see Alfred Ziffer, “‘…skillfully made ready for moulding…’ The Work of Johann Joachim Kaendler” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, pp.61-67.
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp.474-475.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750-1760
1750-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1992.0427.17
accession number
1992.0427
catalog number
1992.0427.17
collector/donor number
281

Knife

Pistol-grip handled knife with curved blunt blade; engraved armorial device on handle back or non-mark side depicts crest of a mermaid or siren with flowing hair and textured skin in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath.
Description
Pistol-grip handled knife with curved blunt blade; engraved armorial device on handle back or non-mark side depicts crest of a mermaid or siren with flowing hair and textured skin in profile proper erased on a ducal coronet and wreath. Blade front has two incuse stamps, both partial, oriented along spine and facing handle: a dagger or trident and "BIRD" in serif letters. From a set of 12 knives and 12 forks stored in original shagreen-covered case, 1978.2424.01-.025.
date made
1740 - 1760
ID Number
1978.2424.02
accession number
1978.2424
catalog number
1978.2424.02

Meissen tea bowl and saucer (part of a service)

TITLE: Meissen tea and coffee service (incomplete)MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: Coffeepot and cover: H. 9¼" 23.5cm; Cream jug and cover: H. 5⅜" 13.7cm;Teapot and cover: H. 4½" 11.4cm; Rinsing bowl: H.
Description
TITLE: Meissen tea and coffee service (incomplete)
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: Coffeepot and cover: H. 9¼" 23.5cm; Cream jug and cover: H. 5⅜" 13.7cm;
Teapot and cover: H. 4½" 11.4cm; Rinsing bowl: H. 3⅜" 8.5cm;
Sugar bowl and cover: H. 4¼" 10.8cm; Cup and saucer (468): Cup: H. 2¾" 7cm,
Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3 cm; Cup and saucer (469) Cup: H. 1¾" 4.5cm,
Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3cm;
Tea bowl and saucer: Bowl: H. 1¾" 4.5cm; Saucer: D. 2¾" 7cm
OBJECT NAME: Tea and coffee service
PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
DATE MADE: 1750-1760
SUBJECT:
Art
Domestic Furnishing
Industry and Manufacturing
CREDIT LINE: The Hans Syz Collection
ID NUMBER: 61.69 A-H
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 462-470 A-H
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “W” in purple on most pieces (painter’s mark); various impressed numbers (2,4,24,53,59,64,66).
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.
This cup and saucer is from a tea and coffee service 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 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.
All the items from this tea and coffee service have elaborate overglaze polychrome rococo cartouches of vines, scrolls, and trellises framing harbor scenes with accessory figures at work on or near the water, and pastoral scenes featuring the elegant so-called “Watteau” figures. Sources for enamel painted harbor scenes and landscapes came from the vast number of prints after paintings by Italian, Dutch, and Flemish masters of the seventeenth century that formed a major part of Meissen’s output from the early 1730s until the 1760s. 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) and Jan van de Velde (1593-1641). Here the idealized landscapes and harbor scenes form the setting through which the nobility and landed gentry walk, ride, and take their ease, surveying their possessions removed from the formality of the court. In the early 1740s the manufactory began to acquire a collection of copperplate engravings on which the Meissen painters based their “Watteauszenen” (Watteau scenes), and they became so much in demand that eleven painters were appointed to specialize in work on this theme. Meissen used the shapes of the pieces in this service many times with some variation on details like handles, spouts, and finials.
The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes and subjects with figures 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.
The “W” painted in purple possibly refers to the painter’s mark of Johann Benjamin Wentzel (or Wenzel 1696?-1765) who appears in the Meissen records as a painter of “landscapes and views” in 1750.
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 and prints 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. 334-335.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1750-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
CE.61.69Gab
catalog number
61.69Gab
collector/donor number
469
accession number
240074

Soup Plate Fragments

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1740 - 1760
ID Number
DL.252318.0082
catalog number
252318.0082
accession number
252318

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