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

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 stand for a tureen

TITLE: Meissen stand for a tureenMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: L. 10" 25.4cm; W.
Description
TITLE: Meissen stand for a tureen
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: L. 10" 25.4cm; W. 7⅛" 18.1cm
OBJECT NAME: Stand
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: 1989.0715.21
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 194
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “30” impressed.
PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1942.
This stand 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.
Oval dishes of this shape were manufactured to hold tureens, although they could function alone as serving platters. The overglaze enamel painting represents European flowers both native and naturalized; the tulip is a wild flower of Central Asian origin cultivated in Turkey as early as 1000 AD and in Europe from the sixteenth century. 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 earlier style of German flowers (deutsche Blumen) Meissen painters referred, among other publications, to Johann Wilhelm Weinmann’s Phytantoza Iconographia (Nuremberg 1737-1745), in which many of the plates of fruits and flowers were engraved after drawings by the outstanding botanical illustrator Georg Dionys Ehret (1708-1770). German flowers were superseded by mannered flowers seen here (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) and later referred to as naturalistic flowers.
In 1728, the model maker Gottlieb Kirchner (b.1706) introduced a small device for making oval-shaped forms. Further improvements led to a more robust machine developed by the organ builder Johann Ernst Hähnel in 1740, which was granted a patent by the Saxon Elector and King of Poland, Augustus II (1670-1733)making larger scale vessels easier to model.
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. Gold painting and polishing was the work of another division of specialists. 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.378-379.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750-1760
1750-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1989.0715.21
accession number
1989.0715
catalog number
1989.0715.21
collector/donor number
194

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

Cup

Raised globular cup with four chased and repousse pairs of opposing ruffled C scrolls sprouting flowers and sprigs. Cylindrical neck with raised bead is engraved "Steh ich auff so füll mich wider." followed by a crosslet between flourishes.
Description
Raised globular cup with four chased and repousse pairs of opposing ruffled C scrolls sprouting flowers and sprigs. Cylindrical neck with raised bead is engraved "Steh ich auff so füll mich wider." followed by a crosslet between flourishes. Underside of boss bottom is struck with a raised serif "P" in rectangle and an illiegible mark.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1725-1765
ID Number
2014.0004.053
catalog number
37144
accession number
2014.0004
catalog number
2014.0004.053

Flagon

Tapered cylindrical, lidded and spouted flagon or pichet on a flared base. Friction-fit, incised, flat lid with ridged heart-shaped cover over the inset, V-shaped, curvilinear spout.
Description
Tapered cylindrical, lidded and spouted flagon or pichet on a flared base. Friction-fit, incised, flat lid with ridged heart-shaped cover over the inset, V-shaped, curvilinear spout. S-scroll strap handle with stepped thumb rest and ball-and-disk lower terminal; thumb piece broken off. Five-knuck hinge with blind hinge lug. Interior with plouk or pimple below rim indicating capacity level. Top of lid stamped with a crown over "1763" and "MH". Underside of flat bottom is struck with a barred pointed shield bearing three imperial crowns; wrigglework engraved "JAS" over a branched motif; and inscribed "42/1243", "6p-" and "50". Bottom inside is struck with four marks arranged in a circle, three crowned and one calligraphic letter.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1763
ID Number
DL.311684
catalog number
311684
accession number
64443

Monteith

Raised circular bowl with crenelated top edge on a domed and stepped circular foot. Applied cast rim features eight ribbed notches separated by eight pairs of C-scrolls with a wavy-haired putti's mask at their centers.
Description
Raised circular bowl with crenelated top edge on a domed and stepped circular foot. Applied cast rim features eight ribbed notches separated by eight pairs of C-scrolls with a wavy-haired putti's mask at their centers. Eight, chased and repousse volutes of overlapping pairs of leaves on bowl form spiraling panels with pendant acanthus. Two panels on opposite side are engraved with armorial devices, one with the Royal coat of arms of the United Kingdom and the other with those of Egerton, consisting of two collared and chained wolves supporting a shield-shaped escutcheon with quartered coat of arms, the first and fourth Barry of eight with cross flory sable and the second and third Azure with three laurel leaves, a collared and chained wolf passant crest and the motto "FRANGAS NON FLECTES". Three hallmarks to upper left of Royal arms, the raised gothic or Old English letter "K" in shield, lion passant guardant in shield, and crowned leopard's head in round-bottom shield; cast rim applied over maker's mark. Underside of rounded bottom struck with an incuse five-arm or -petal motif; centerpunch visible.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1765
previous owner
Pell, Alfred Duane
ID Number
DL.60.0338
catalog number
60.0338
accession number
225282

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

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

Pistol-grip handled knife with blunt, curved and tapered blade; engraved crest on handle front or 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 front or 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, all partial, oriented along spine and facing handle: a dagger or trident, an imperial crown and "BI[RD]" 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
1978.2424.11
accession number
1978.2424
catalog number
1978.2424.11

Teapot

Apple-shaped teapot on a seamed, molded base with a flared, hinged lid topped by a cast, pagoda-shape knop.
Description
Apple-shaped teapot on a seamed, molded base with a flared, hinged lid topped by a cast, pagoda-shape knop. Raised body and lid have engraved bands of leafy scrolls, diaper-patterned reserves, and flowers; cartouches on opposite sides of band around shoulder of body contain a partially decipherable crest of a left-facing, spreadwing bird rising from a heraldic wreath with motto above. Spurred, ear-shape handle is pinned into short voluted sockets. Five-knuckle hinge is applied to exterior of lid and body and secured with two rivets. S curve spout with water leaf on upper lip, shell and cabochon on belly, and ruffles around base. Body perforated at spout. Underside of concave, soldered bottom is struck "Hurd" in raised roman letters in an indistinctly shaped surround. No centerpunch. Polished; engraved details lost and crest is only partially decipherable.
The attribution of this teapot to Boston silversmith Jacob Hurd (1702/3-1758) is questionable.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1755-1765
ID Number
DL.383528
catalog number
383528
accession number
162866

Worcester porcelain coffee pot and cover

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1760-1770
1760-1765
ID Number
CE.P-157ab
catalog number
P-157ab
accession number
225282

Knife

Pistol-grip handled knife with blunt, curved and tapered blade; engraved crest on handle front or 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 front or 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 "BI[RD]" 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
1978.2424.09
accession number
1978.2424
catalog number
1978.2424.09

Meissen teapot and cover (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 (later Tsarina 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
1983.0565.53ab
catalog number
1983.0565.53ab
accession number
1983.0565
collector/donor number
148

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

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
1983.0565.54Aab
catalog number
1983.0565.54Aab
accession number
1983.0565
collector/donor number
149a

Spoon

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1769
1770 - 1775
ID Number
1983.0047.02
accession number
1983.0047
catalog number
1983.0047.02

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

Pistol Tinderbox and Inkstand

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1740 - 1760
ID Number
DL.376841
catalog number
376841
accession number
136485

chair

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

Tankard

Double dome lid, straight tapered tankard with scroll thumbpiece, low fillet and applied molded rim and base; pint size. Hollow, D-section, S-curve handle with single large drop below the three-knuckle hinge tapers to a fishtail terminal; no strut.
Description
Double dome lid, straight tapered tankard with scroll thumbpiece, low fillet and applied molded rim and base; pint size. Hollow, D-section, S-curve handle with single large drop below the three-knuckle hinge tapers to a fishtail terminal; no strut. Faint touchmark of what appears to be the raised serif letters "WC" inside bottom.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1720 - 1760
ID Number
1986.0027.46
catalog number
1986.0027.46
accession number
1986.0027

Tankard

Currently not on view
Location
Currently not on view
date made
1723 - 1760
ID Number
1986.0027.92
accession number
1986.0027
catalog number
1986.0027.92

Meissen punch bowl: a Midnight Modern Conversation

TITLE: Meissen punch bowlMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: H 6¼" 15.9cm; D.
Description
TITLE: Meissen punch bowl
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: H 6¼" 15.9cm; D. 11½" 29.2cm
OBJECT NAME: Punch bowl
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: 1983.0565.40
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1534
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.
PURCHASED FROM: J. J. Klejman, New York, 1968.
This piece 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 punch bowl has a basket weave relief border in the Old Ozier (Alt Ozier) pattern, below which is an onglaze enamel painted version of William Hogarth’s A Midnight Modern Conversation. Hogarth (1697-1764) painted the original work in oil on canvas, and in 1733 produced a print after his painting that was highly popular and imitated by many engravers. The painting can be seen at: http://collections.britishart.yale.edu/vufind/Record/1671164
Hogarth treated his subject in a good-humored manner and in the first state of his print the caption reads: “Think not to find one meant Resemblance there/We lash the vices but the Persons spare.” A group of very inebriated gentlemen drink punch and wine until the early hours of the morning according to the clock, and the consequences of all that alcohol consumption are made clear allowing the viewer to respond with amusement or disgust according to their own inclination. On this punch bowl the men appear to be in a garden whereas the original painting and print depicts the group in an interior setting, probably an upstairs room of a London tavern. On the reverse side of the bowl the subject of excessive alcohol consumption continues as two men are served wine and punch while a third vomits on the ground beside the table.
Many British artists of the eighteenth century, Hogarth among them, painted collective portraits of families, of social assemblies, and professional gatherings that became known as conversation pieces. These fashionable works frequently depicted people gathered around the tea table and represented their social poise and status in polite society. Hogarth’s A Midnight Modern Conversation, however, represents the antithesis to any notions of politeness, a scene where social propriety breaks down. The moral purpose may be cautionary to those who drink the bowl’s contents.
It is possible that the bowl had a cover like the one seen on another Meissen example in the collections of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
http://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O277543/punch-bowl-and-meissen-porcelain-factory/
On the print version of the subject see David Bindman, 1997, Hogarth and His times: Serious Comedy.
Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 280-281.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1750-1760
c 1770
1750-1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1983.0565.40
accession number
1983.0565
catalog number
1983.0565.40
collector/donor number
1534

Meissen figure of a girl dressed as a Harlequin

TITLE: Meissen figure of a girl cupid dressed as a harlequin.MAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: 3¼" 8.3 cmOBJECT NAME: FigurePLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE MADE: 1760SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collec
Description
TITLE: Meissen figure of a girl cupid dressed as a harlequin.
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: 3¼" 8.3 cm
OBJECT NAME: Figure
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: 1987.0896.32
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 65
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARKS: None
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 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 figure, modeled by Kaendler, represents a female harlequin from the ‘putti in disguise’ series. Her wings have broken off. The Meissen cupids, the ‘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 Acier (1736-1799) 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, allegorical and emblematic themes.
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 Italian Comedy figures see Chilton, M., 2001, Harlequin Unmasked” the Commedia dell’ arte and porcelain sculpture
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, p.472-473.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1760
1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1987.0896.32
catalog number
1987.0896.32
accession number
1987.0896
collector/donor number
65b

Meissen figure group of a bacchanal procession

TITLE: Meissen figure group of a bacchanal processionMAKER: Meissen ManufactoryPHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)MEASUREMENTS: 8½ " 21.6 cmMark: Crossed swords in underglaze blueOBJECT NAME: Figure groupPLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, GermanyDATE
Description
TITLE: Meissen figure group of a bacchanal procession
MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
MEASUREMENTS: 8½ " 21.6 cm
Mark: Crossed swords in underglaze blue
OBJECT NAME: Figure group
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: 1983.0565.60
COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 54
ACCESSION NUMBER:
(DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
MARK: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.
PURCHASE: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1941.
This figure group 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 figure group, possibly modeled by Friedrich Elias Meyer (1724-1785), represents the revels in honor of the Greek god Dionysis or the Roman Bacchus, and follows the Rococo style of representation epitomized by the French painter François Boucher. The man seated on the donkey, or an ass, represents the drunken Silenus prevented by Bacchus from falling off his mount in a stupor. A bacchante reclines at Bacchus’s feet with a basket full of grapes.
The Renaissance humanist tradition was still active in early eighteenth-century court culture, and the Meissen manufactory produced a large number of mythological and allegorical subjects featured in other branches of the visual arts and in the elaborate court entertainments, festivals and processions that took place in Dresden. This model is listed in the 1773 inventory of confectionary items and was likely used for decorative display on the dessert table (see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, p. 345).
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 group is painted in overglaze enamel colors and gold.
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.
On court festivals see Watanabe O’Kelly, H., 2002, Court Culture in Dresden: From Renaissance to Baroque
On Bacchus/Dionysius see Grafton, A., Most, G.W., Settis, S., eds. 2010, The Classical Tradition, p. 272; Dalby, A., 2003, Bacchus: A Biography
Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 430-431.
Location
Currently not on view
date made
ca 1760
Date made
1740 to 1750
date made
1760
maker
Meissen Manufactory
ID Number
1983.0565.60
accession number
1983.0565
catalog number
1983.0565.60
collector/donor number
54

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