Art

Meissen chinoiserie tureen and cover

Description: TITLE: Meissen tureen and cover.; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 13⅛" 33.4cm; L. 15" 38.1cm; OBJECT NAME: Tureen; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1735-36; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 65.390; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 734; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; cross with four dots (former’s mark of Andreas Schiefer).; PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1947.; This tureen 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.; Meissen’s chinoiserie period began in the 1720s following the arrival from Vienna of Johann Gregor Höroldt (1696-1775) who brought with him superior skills in enamel painting on porcelain. His highly significant contribution to Meissen was to develop a palette of very fine bright enamel colors that had so far eluded the team of metallurgists at the manufactory, and that were new to onglaze enamel colors on faience and porcelain in general.; The oval tureen and cover has low relief basket weave borders in the Sulkowsky pattern first introduced by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) in 1733 on a service made for the Polish Count Alexander Joseph von Sulkowsky (1695-1762). The tureen has two bands of continuous chinoiserie scenes painted, not in the style of Höroldt, but in that of Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck who developed a distinctly different body of work to that of Johann Gregor Höroldt during his relatively short career at Meissen. The painting on the tureen is not the work of Löwenfinck himself, but of another unidentified follower of his style at Meissen. On the cover a servant carrying a basket of cut flowers and a kettle encounters a man carrying a bottle accompanied by a young boy; on the bowl of the tureen travelers walk through a landscape carrying bundles, baskets, and parasols, and a child supports an elderly man who is protected from the sun by a servant holding a parasol. Many of Löwenfinck’s designs feature travelers, people riding on exotic animals, and children playing pranks on adults.; Chinoiserie is from the French Chinois (Chinese) and refers to ornamentation that is Chinese-like. The style evolved in Europe as Chinese luxury products began to arrive in the West in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries through the major European trading companies. Artisans were quick to incorporate motifs from these products into their work and to imitate their material qualities, especially the Chinese lacquers, embroidered silks, and porcelains, but their imitation was not informed by first-hand knowledge of China or an understanding of Chinese conventions in two-dimensional representation, and instead a fanciful European vision emerged to become an ornamental style employed in garden and interior design, in cabinet making, faience and porcelain manufacture, and in textiles. Illustrated books began to appear in the second half of the seventeenth century that describe the topography of China, its peoples and their customs, and these sources were copied and used by designers, artists, printmakers, and artisans including Johann Gregor Höroldt at Meissen. Application of the term chinoiserie to this class of Meissen porcelains is problematic, however, because Johann Gregor Höroldt and his painters developed ideas from a variety of sources and referred to the “chinoiseries” as “Japanese” (Japonische) figures, an early modern generic term for exotic artifacts and images imported from the East.; It is possible that a Meissen painter decorated this tureen at a date later than 1736; compare this tureen with one painted by Lowenfinck and illustrated in Pietsch, U. 2014, Phantastiche Welten: Malerei auf Meissener Porzellan und deutschen Fayencen von Adam Friedrich von Lowenfinck 1714-1715, S.168-169.; On Johann Gregor Höroldt see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 17-25.; On chinoiserie see Impey, O., 1997, Chinoiserie: the Impact of Oriental Styles on Western Art and Decoration; on the porcelain trade and European exposure to the Chinese product see the exhibition catalog by Emerson, J., Chen, J., Gardner Gates, M., 2000, Porcelain Stories: from China to Europe.; Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 96-97.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1735-1736; 1735-1736

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.65.390ab
catalog number: 65.390ab
collector/donor number: 734ab
accession number: 262623

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure of a girl dressed as a Harlequin

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

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen tea caddy and cover

Description: TITLE: Meissen tea caddy and cover (Hausmalerinnen); MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: 4" 10.2 cm; OBJECT NAME: Tea caddy and cover; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1717-1720; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.38 a,b; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 668 a,b; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: None; PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1947.; This tea caddy is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; The tea caddy was made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose, and wealthy patrons of local enameling and gilding workshops purchased undecorated porcelain, often of out-moded or inferior quality, which was then enameled with subjects of their choice. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories like Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or even imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.; The tea caddy was painted in Augsburg in the 1730s, probably by Anna Elizabeth Wald (b.1696) and Sabina Hosennestel (b.1706), the daughters of gold worker and Hausmaler Johann Aufenwerth (d. 1728). Two hundred years earlier Augsburg was the center of international merchant banking, and it is no coincidence that it was also a center for goldsmith work of exceptional quality. Although no longer a powerful city in the eighteenth century, Augsburg was still renowned for its high quality artisan trades in precious metals, book production, and textiles. Hausmalerei was one among many subsidiary trades that met demands from other workshops, individual clients, and new manufactories like that of Meissen.; The tea caddy has a hexagonal baluster form and the arrowhead border on top of the cover is a device often seen in Augsburg Hausmalerei. The elaborate scrolled section below the chinoiseries of gentlemen smoking and taking tea, is characteristic of another Augsburg Hausmaler, Abraham Seuter (1689-1747), and may indicate cross influences between the two workshops. It is also possible that the source was a pattern book published by Jeremias Wolff of Augsburg with designs illustrated on early porcelain models from the Meissen manufactory and the DuPaquier manufactory in Vienna (see Cassidy-Geiger, M., “Graphic Sources for Meissen Porcelain: Origins of the Print Collection in the Meissen Archives” Metropolitan Museum Journal, Vol 31(1996) pp.99-126).; On the Augsburg Hausmaler and Hausmalerinnen see Ducret, S., 1971, Meissner Porzellan bemalt in Augsburg, 1718 bis um 1750, Band 1 Goldmalereien und bunte Chinoiserien.; On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 508-509.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1715-1720; 1715-1720

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1987.0896.38ab
catalog number: 1987.0896.38ab
accession number: 1987.0896
collector/donor number: 668

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen covered cup and stand

Description: TITLE: Meissen covered cup and stand; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H. 5" 12.8cm; Stand: L. 6¾" 17.2cm; OBJECT NAME: Covered cup and stand; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1740; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1984.1140.10 abc; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 444 abc; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; incised cross, former’s mark.; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.; This covered cup and 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.; The cup with two handles in the form of twisted vines sits on a lobed, oval-shaped stand. Roses mixed with forget-me-nots, pinks, and narcissi are applied in swags in high relief, and painted in gold on the center of the stand is a spray of flowers. The interiors of the cup and cover are painted and burnished in gold.; Johann Joachim Kaendler’s work report of May/June 1738, and September 1739 records his production of models for a breakfast service for The Electress of Saxony and Queen of Poland, Maria Josepha (1699-1757) consort of Augustus III. This covered cup and stand, however, does not have the camaïeu landscapes painted in purple enamel in the well of the stands that are found on Maria Josepha’s service, examples of which are now in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin. A cup and stand made in this elaborate style may have been part of a royal gift, and the service for Maria Josepha was one of the first in a series of items modeled by Kaendler that featured applied floral ornaments, which are time-consuming to make and require considerable skill. Flowers at Meissen are sculpted free-hand, but with the aid of cone-shaped plaster stamps for producing naturalistic curved forms.; On the service for Maria Josepha see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, p. 240-241; Samuel Wittwer, “Liasons Fragile: Exchanges of Gifts Between Saxony and Prussia in the Early Eighteenth Century” in Cassidy-Geiger, M., 2008, Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for European Courts 1710-1763, p.101); on porcelain flower making 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 Bourgoisie 1710-1815, p.63.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 272-273.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1740; 1740

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1984.1140.10abc
catalog number: 1984.1140.10abc
accession number: 1984.1140
collector/donor number: 444

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen underglaze blue tureen and cover

Description: MARKS: Crossed swords, dot, and cipher MÖ in underglaze blue (possibly the underglaze blue painter Johann Carl Möbius Senior); “34” impressed (former’s number).; PURCHASED FROM: A. Neuberger, New York, 1963.; This tureen is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York collector and dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in 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.; Early in Meissen’s history Johann Friedrich Böttger’s team searched for success in underglaze blue painting in imitation of the Chinese and Japanese prototypes in the Dresden collections. Böttger’s porcelain, however, was fired at a temperature higher than Chinese porcelain or German stoneware. As in China, the underglaze blue pigment was painted on the clay surface before firing, but when glazed and fired the cobalt sank into the porcelain body and ran into the glaze instead of maintaining a sharp image like the Chinese originals. The Elector of Saxony and King of Poland Augustus II was not satisfied with the inferior product. Success in underglaze blue painting eluded Böttger’s team until Johann Gregor Höroldt (1696-1775) appropriated a workable formula developed by the metallurgist David Köhler (1673-1723). Success required adjustment to the porcelain paste by replacing the alabaster flux with feldspar and adding a percentage of porcelain clay (kaolin) to the cobalt pigment. Underglaze blue painting became a reliable and substantial part of the manufactory’s output in the 1730s.; This deep bowl-shaped tureen with a twisted scroll handle on the cover is painted in underglaze blue with the so-called “onion pattern” (zwiebelmuster), a Meissen design based on motifs from Chinese protoytpes, and a modified pattern is still in production today. The “onions” just visible on the band under the rim of the pot are stylized depictions of pomegranates. In China, the pomegranate symbolizes fertility because of its numerous seeds, and extends into other meanings of good fortune, abundance, a future blessed by many virtuous and successful children. The flower commonly seen on this pattern is a chrysanthemum which represents immortality, and is also associated with the sun because of its radial petals of gold and yellow hues. The mark MÖ probably refers to the underglaze blue painter Johann Carl Möbius, or one of his two sons who joined the underglaze blue painters in the 1770s.; Underglaze blue painting requires skills similar to a watercolor artist. There are no second chances, and once the pigment touches the clay or biscuit-fired surface it cannot be eradicated easily. Many of Meissen’s underglaze blue designs were, and still are, “pounced” onto the surface of the vessel before painting. Pouncing is a long used technique in which finely powdered charcoal or graphite is allowed to fall through small holes pierced through the outlines of a paper design, thereby serving as a guide for the painter and maintaining a relative standard in the component parts of Meissen table services.; On underglaze blue painting at Meissen see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 22-23.; J. Carswell, 1985, Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and its impact on the Western World.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 246-247.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1750-1775

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1984.1140.38ab
catalog number: 1984.1140.38ab
accession number: 1984.1140
collector/donor number: 1316ab

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen underglaze blue oval box and cover

Description: MARKS: Crossed swords and two dots connected with a line in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: The Art Exchange, New York, 1965.; This oval box is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the collector and dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in 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.; Early in Meissen’s history Johann Friedrich Böttger’s team searched for success in underglaze blue painting in imitation of the Chinese and Japanese prototypes in the Dresden collections. Böttger’s porcelain, however, was fired at a temperature higher than Chinese porcelain or German stoneware. As in China, the underglaze blue pigment was painted on the clay surface before firing, but when glazed and fired the cobalt sank into the porcelain body and ran into the glaze instead of maintaining a sharp image like the Chinese originals. The Elector of Saxony and King of Poland Augustus II was not satisfied with the inferior product. Success in underglaze blue painting eluded Böttger’s team until Johann Gregor Höroldt (1696-1775) appropriated a workable formula developed by the metallurgist David Köhler (1673-1723). Success required adjustment to the porcelain paste by replacing the alabaster flux with feldspar and adding a percentage of porcelain clay (kaolin) to the cobalt pigment. Underglaze blue painting became a reliable and substantial part of the manufactory’s output in the 1730s.; There are six paw feet on the base of the box, and it is decorated on both the cover and container with motifs characteristic of the “onion” pattern. Pomegranates that were much later described as ‘onions’ can be seen on the box, and on the cover is the large chrysanthemum associated with this pattern which was a Meissen design based on motifs from Chinese prototypes. A modified "onion" pattern is still in production today.; Underglaze blue painting requires skills similar to a watercolor artist. There are no second chances, and once the pigment touches the clay biscuit-fired surface it cannot be eradicated easily. Many of Meissen’s underglaze blue designs were, and still are, “pounced” onto the surface of the vessel before painting. Pouncing is a long used technique in which finely powdered charcoal or graphite is allowed to fall through small holes pierced through the outlines of a paper design, thereby serving as a guide for the painter and maintaining a relative standard in the component parts of Meissen table services.; On underglaze blue painting at Meissen see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 22-23.; J. Carswell, 1985, Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and its impact on the Western World.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 244-245.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1730-1735

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1984.1140.42ab
catalog number: 1984.1140.42ab
accession number: 1984.1140
collector/donor number: 1468

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen tea bowl and saucer

Description: TITLE: Meissen tea bowl and saucer; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H. 2⅛" 5.4cm; D: 5⅝" 14.3cm; OBJECT NAME: Tea bowl and saucer; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1730-1735; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1984.1140.34ab; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1232ab; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords and “K” in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: William H. Lautz, New York, 1962.; This tea bowl and saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; The tea bowl and saucer are fluted, but otherwise simple in their form. Decorated in underglaze blue, onglaze iron-red, and gold, the pattern is in the Japanese Imari style, but bears similarity to the Chinese Imari imitations after the Japanese originals that entered production in China in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. A flower vase in the center of the saucer, a common motif in Imari designs, is encircled by a wide band with boughs of chrysanthemums, camelias and peonies. Flowers extend their stems outside the circle and around the exterior of the tea bowl.; Japan traded Arita porcelains to the Dutch during the second half of the seventeenth century when Chinese porcelain production at the manufacturing center of Jingdezhen ceased following the turmoil that occurred on the fall of the Ming Dynasty in 1644. Once production in Jingdezhen resumed no time was lost in challenging the Japanese market with less expensive Chinese imitations in the Imari style, so much so that the Japanese trade more or less collapsed in the middle of the eighteenth century. The Saxon Elector and King of Poland, Augustus II, held examples of Japanese and Chinese Imari in his porcelain collection at the Japanese Palace in Dresden, and the Meissen Manufactory produced designs that were very close imitations of East Asian originals, or independent designs based on Chinese and Japanese prototypes. Augustus obtained Japanese porcelain through his agents operating in Amsterdam who purchased items from Dutch merchants, and from a Dutch dealer in Dresden, Elizabeth Bassetouche.; On Japanese Imari porcelain and its European imitators see Ayers, J., Impey, O., Mallet, J.V.G., 1990, Porcelain for Palaces: the fashion for Japan in Europe 1650-1750, pp.233-238. See also Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 244-260.; For a similar saucer to the one seen here and for more details on this type of pattern see Weber, J., 2013, Meissener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern: Stiftung Ernst Schneider in Schloss Lustheim, Band II, S. 93-94.; Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 192-193.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1730-1735; 1730-1735

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1984.1140.34ab
catalog number: 1984.1140.34ab
accession number: 1984.1140
collector/donor number: 1232ab

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen cup and saucer

Description: TITLE: Meissen cup and saucer; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H. 2⅝" 6.7cm; Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3cm; OBJECT NAME: Cup and saucer; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1740-1750; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1984.1140.36 a,b; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1256 a,b; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “53 impressed on cup; “P” impressed on saucer.; PURCHASED FROM: A. Neuberger, New York, 1962.; This cup and saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; The cup and saucer have flowering prunus in relief on their exterior surfaces, and this type of decoration revived in the 1740s, is reminiscent of the early Böttger porcelains with similar ornament based on Chinese Dehua (blanc de Chine) porcelains with the prunus branches in high relief; prototypes with this pattern were in the royal collections in Dresden and made available to Johann Friedrich Böttger as models for early Meissen porcelain. In 1745 Johann Joachim Kaendler revived some of the patterns from the first decade of Meissen’s production that were, like this pattern, particularly admired. For an example of a similar cup and saucer, but with a yellow ground, enamel-painted chinoiseries and gilding see Pietsch, U., 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: the Wark Collection from the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, p. 450, with on p. 451 a white teapot made at about the same date with prunus blossoms in relief.; The motif of the flowering prunus came from Chinese sources where fruit trees depicted in late winter and early spring bloom symbolize resilience and rebirth after winter and are the harbingers of spring.; The manufactory employed “mechanics” (Mechaniker), men who could maintain and oversee the use of machinery for the processing of materials, but also invent tools and devices that extended and supported the skills of mold makers and turners, ensuring a standard in uniformity and quality in the production of table services in particular. Most of Meissen’s vessels were made in plaster of Paris molds rotated on a wheel with the turner (Dreher) using a template or profile to guide the shape to an even thickness so as to avoid distortion in the firing. Oval forms were made using machines designed to carry a profile that followed an eccentric movement guided by a jig. All wares were turned in rough form and the porcelain allowed to air dry until it could hold its own shape before refining the surface with iron turning tools, smoothing away blemishes with a sponge, and polishing with a small piece of ivory or horn: all these mechanical devices and tools were made in the manufactory, sometimes improved upon and made by workers themselves. (See Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, p. 100).; On blanc de Chine in the Hickley Collection, Singapore, see Kerr, R., and Ayers, J., 2002, Blanc de Chine Porcelain from Dehua, and especially the contribution by Eva Ströber, “Dehua Porcelain in the Collection of Augustus the Strong in Dresden.”; For evidence of the Meissen Manufactory’s technical workers the methods employed see Rückert, R. 1990, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts.; Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 220-221.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1740-1750; 1740-1750

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1984.1140.36ab
catalog number: 1984.1140.36ab
accession number: 1984.1140
collector/donor number: 1256ab

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen chocolate pot and cover

Description: TITLE: Meissen chocolate pot and cover; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 7⅛" 18.1cm; OBJECT NAME: Chocolate pot; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1775-1800; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.06 ab; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 450; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords and star in underglaze blue; “83” impressed.; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.; This chocolate pot and cover 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 chocolate pot, based on contemporary metal pots of the period, has a wooden handle mounted in a side socket and a wooden finial on the cover; wooden handles protected hands from the hot surface of the pot when filled with liquid. The finial could be removed and a swizzle stick inserted to raise froth on the hot chocolate and mix it thoroughly. The spout has a scrolled molding.; Hot chocolate, one of the three hot liquors to transform European drinking and social rituals, was more expensive and laborious to prepare than coffee, but nevertheless very popular in affluent society. Usually, chocolate was taken as a breakfast drink for those who could afford such a luxury and the trembleuse cup and saucer was designed for those who took their breakfast in bed, and for invalids for whom chocolate was considered of medicinal value. Although not as numerous as coffee houses, chocolate houses began to appear in European cities in the late seventeenth century. The beverage was very different to the powdered cocoa drinks of today, and was closer to its origin in the cultures of Central and South America, but made more palatable for Europeans with the addition of sugar and cream.; In the late eighteenth century Meissen produced various items reminiscent of the early Meissen Böttger porcelains that were admired for their raised ornament designed originally by the Dresden court goldsmith Johann Jacob Irminger (1635-1724), the so-called Irmingersche Belege. The applied grapevine (Wein-Laub) design seen on this pot and cover was especially favored.; On the practice of drinking hot chocolate see Bowman, P.B., 1995, In Praise of Hot Liquors: The Study of Chocolate, Coffee and Tea-drinking 1600-1850; on the history of coffee houses see Ellis, M. 2011, The Coffee House: A Cultural History; for an exhaustive study of chocolate see Grivetti, L. E., Shapiro, H. Y., 2009, Chocolate: History, Culture, and Heritage.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 274-275.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1775-1800; 1775-1800

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1987.0896.06ab
catalog number: 1987.0896.06ab
accession number: 1987.0896
collector/donor number: 450

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen fork handle

Description: TITLE: Meissen fork handle; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: L. 3¼" 8.3cm; OBJECT NAME: Fork; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1740; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1984.1140.25; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 706; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: None; PURCHASED FROM: H. Bachrach, London, 1947.; This fork with a Meissen porcelain handle 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 fork handle is painted with an animal on each side, a fox-like creature of invention, of which there are many in Japanese mythology and folklore.; While the knife has an ancient history as a tool for butchering and cutting food, the table fork is a much later invention. Large two-pronged forks existed in antiquity to assist in the handling of large cuts of meat, but the custom of using a small fork for dining appeared in the cultures of the Middle East and Byzantium in the seventh century AD. When introduced to Venice in the tenth century by a Byzantine bride at her wedding feast to the Doge’s son, the Venetian court considered the implement a decadent affectation. Nevertheless, forks were adopted slowly in Italy and spread to other parts of Europe reaching England with the traveler Thomas Coryote in the early seventeenth century. Forks arrived with European settlers at a later date in the American colonies, but their use was not wholeheartedly accepted even in the early 1800s.; The tines on this fork are in the early style and best used as an aid in cutting meat. Forks with two shorter tines (suckett forks) were used for eating sugary and sticky sweetmeats or foods like mulberries that would stain the fingers. Three or four tines formed into a curve made eating other foods (peas for example) very much easier.; For histories of the fork see http://leitesculinaria.com/1157/writings-the-uncommon-origins-of-the-common-fork.html; http://blogs.smithsonianmag.com/food/2009/07/a-history-of-western-eating-utensils-from-the-scandalous-fork-to-the-incredible-spork/; Hans Syz, Jefferson Miller II, J., Rainer Rückert., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 218-219.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1730-1735; 1730-1735

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1984.1140.25
catalog number: 1984.1140.25
accession number: 1984.1140
collector/donor number: 706

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen plate

Description: MARKS: "22" impressed.; PURCHASED FROM: E. Pinkus Antiques, New york, 1970.; This plate is part of the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the 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.; Underglaze blue as seen on this plate was a challenge for the Meissen manufactory’s laboratory. Cobalt blue is one of few colors derived from metal oxides that can withstand high temperatures without vanishing, and for several centuries the German stoneware tradition used cobalt pigments to ornament vessels and tiles. However, firing porcelain at a much higher temperature meant that the oxide became unstable, causing it to bleed into the glaze, losing definition in the design. The blue color at Meissen was not pleasing either, especially in comparison to the bright blues characteristic of the most prized Chinese blue and white porcelain so much desired in the West.; The production of cobalt blue pigments (blaufarben) was one of the major metal and mineral industries of Saxony, so it was particularly frustrating to the Meissen team when faced with a problem that took many years to resolve. Mined since the early sixteenth century in the Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) near Dresden, cobalt became a major source of blue pigments in Europe. Found combined with other metals and semi-metals – nickel, iron, copper, bismuth and arsenic – cobalt salts, after smelting and separation, were then processed into smalt, a pigment used by painters, and zaffer, a preparation used in enamel and glass production. However, neither of these pigments was suitable for underglaze painting on porcelain.; So keen was Augustus II, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, to have underglaze blue decorated porcelain that he set an award of 1000 thalers for anyone who met with success in securing a reliable blue color. For many years the metallurgist David Köhler (1683?-1723), a member of the original team at Meissen, worked on the problem. So did Samuel Stölzel and two painters, Johann Georg Mehlhorn (c. 1671-1735) and Conrad Hunger (dates unknown) who received 300 thalers each when they presented the Elector with underglaze blue porcelain of rather mediocre quality. Köhler improved the stability of the pigment, but when he died in 1723, and when feldspar replaced alabaster in the porcelain body itself, further difficulties arose that were finally resolved in the late 1720s with a fine blue pigment on a whiter porcelain body. (Pietsch, U., Triumph of the Blue Swords, 2008, p.22); This plate, produced in about 1740 when the manufactory had underglaze blue well under control, features the so-called ‘Zwiebelmuster’ or ‘onion’ pattern, probably introduced in this form in the late 1720s. It has long been assumed that the 'onion' pattern was a copy of a Chinese protoype, but it was a Meissen design with several variations based on Chinese motifs.(Pietsch,U., Triumph of the Blue Swords, 2010, p. 245). To ensure a consistent standard in the production of table services the ‘onion’ patterns were first ‘pounced’ onto the surface of the porcelain, leaving a traceable design for the painters to follow, a practice that continues at Meissen today.; Meissen’s blue and white ‘onion’ pattern was immensely successful, and modified versions are still in production. Underglaze blue painted in imitation of Meissen porcelains were produced at many European porcelain manufactories during the eighteenth century, and they became the preferred domestic choice for those who could afford to buy them. Consumers still find blue and white pottery, porcelain, and china attractive and desirable for everyday use in the home.; On underglaze blue painting at Meissen see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 22-23.; Carswell, J., 1985, Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and its impact on the Western World.; Syz, H., Rückert, R., Miller, J. J. II., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp 242-243.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1740; 1740

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1984.1140.45
collector/donor number: 1595
accession number: 1984.1140
catalog number: 1984.1140.45

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen underglaze blue milk pot and cover

Description: MARKS: Crossed swords and a “G” in underglaze blue on the base of the handle.; PURCHASED FROM: S. Berges, New York, 1943.; This milk pot is from of the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the collector and New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). 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.; Early in Meissen’s history Johann Friedrich Böttger’s team searched for success in underglaze blue painting in imitation of the Chinese and Japanese prototypes in the Dresden collections. Böttger’s porcelain, however, was fired at a temperature higher than Chinese porcelain or German stoneware. As in China, the underglaze blue pigment was painted on the clay surface before firing, but when glazed and fired the cobalt sank into the porcelain body and ran into the glaze instead of maintaining a sharp image like the Chinese originals. The Elector of Saxony and King of Poland Augustus II was not satisfied with the inferior product. Success in underglaze blue painting eluded Böttger’s team until Johann Gregor Höroldt (1696-1775) appropriated a workable formula developed by the metallurgist David Köhler (1673-1723). Success required adjustment to the porcelain paste by replacing the alabaster flux with feldspar and adding a percentage of porcelain clay (kaolin) to the cobalt pigment. Underglaze blue painting became a reliable and substantial part of the manufactory’s output in the 1730s.; Representing a garden landscape the “rock and bird” pattern seen on this milk pot was adapted by the Meissen manufactory from Japanese porcelain models made in Arita. Japanese potters imitated Chinese designs and trade in porcelain from China to Japan was extensive before the collapse of the Ming dynasty in 1644. Several European porcelain manufactories imitated Meissen’s imitation of the Japanese prototype of a flying bird and flowering tree beside a rock. The double loops circling the neck of the pot are common to many of the objects with the “rock and bird” pattern. The letter “G” in underglaze blue on the base of the handle is likely a painter’s mark.; Underglaze blue painting requires skills similar to a watercolor artist. There are no second chances, and once the pigment touches the clay or biscuit-fired surface it cannot be eradicated easily. Many of Meissen’s underglaze blue designs were, and still are, “pounced” onto the surface of the vessel before painting. Pouncing is a long used technique in which finely powdered charcoal or graphite is allowed to fall through small holes pierced through the outlines of a paper design, thereby serving as a guide for the painter and maintaining a relative standard in the component parts of Meissen table services.; On underglaze blue painting at Meissen see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 22-23.; J. Carswell, 1985, Blue and White: Chinese Porcelain and its impact on the Western World.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 250-251.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1732

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1984.1140.05ab
catalog number: 1984.1140.05ab
accession number: 1984.1140
collector/donor number: 342

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen tea bowl and saucer

Description: TITLE: Meissen tea bowl and saucer; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: Bowl: H. 1¾" 4.5cm; Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3cm; OBJECT NAME: Tea bowl and saucer; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: ca. 1735-1740; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.08ab; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 423ab; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “4” in gold on cup; and“7” in gold on saucer (gold painter’s numbers); former’s mark impressed on bottom of cup.; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.; This tea bowl and saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in 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.; Framed by leaf and strapwork (Laub-und Bandelwerk) in iron-red and purple enamel, purple luster, and gold, and painted in onglaze polychrome enamels the tea bowl has a river scene dominated by a windmill on one side and the entrance to a harbor on the other. On the saucer a harbor scene shows figures waiting or watching for small sailing ships seen in the distance. Vignettes of harbor scenes are painted in purple enamel contained within the gold scrollwork borders on the interior rims of both the tea bowl and saucer.; Sources for enamel painted harbor and waterside scenes came from the vast number of prints after paintings by Dutch masters of the seventeenth century that formed a major part of Meissen’s output from the early 1720s until the 1750s. The Meissen manufactory accumulated folios of prints, about six to twelve in a set, as well as illustrated books and individual prints after the work of many European artists; especially popular were the subjects by painters Jan van Goyen (1596-1656), Jan van de Velde (1593-1641), and Johann Wilhelm Baur (d.1640).; The popularity of landscape, harbor, and waterside subjects held particular appeal for city dwellers and for the nobility obliged to fulfill court duties. Long before Meissen began production Dutch artists realized the potential for a market in prints that led viewers into pleasant places real and imagined. In seventeenth-century Amsterdam there was a flourishing publishing industry to support the production of illustrated books and print series for buyers to view at their leisure. Printed images enriched people’s lives and a series of prints might take the viewer on a journey, real or imaginary. Prints performed a role in European visual culture later extended by photography and film, and they provided artisans and artists with images, motifs, and patterns applied in the decoration of many branches of artisan made and manufactured goods.; The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes, harbor, and river scenes with staffage (figures and animals) were paid more than those who painted flowers, fruits and underglaze blue patterns. Most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage or salary. Decorative scrollwork was the responsibility of another painter specializing in this form of decoration.; On graphic sources for Meissen’s painters see Möller, K. A., “’…fine copper pieces for the factory…’ Meissen Pieces Based on graphic originals” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 84-93.; On Dutch prints see Goddard, S. H., 1984, Sets and Series: Prints from the Low Countries.; 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. 298-299.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1735-1740; 1735-1740

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1987.0896.08ab
catalog number: 1987.0896.08ab
accession number: 1987.0896
collector/donor number: 423ab

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen plate (Hausmaler)

Description: TITLE: Meissen plate (Hausmaler); MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: D. 8¼" 21 cm; OBJECT NAME: Plate; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1725-1730 Meissen; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.43; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 376; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: Alice Sydnam, New York, 1943.; This plate is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; This plate was made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories like Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.; The plate was painted in the mid-eighteenth century in the workshop of Franz Ferdinand Mayer (b. 1727) of Pressnitz (now Přísečnice in the Czech Republic). Mayer’s workshop specialized in the enamel painting of allegorical subjects, hunting scenes, landscapes and pastoral subjects as seen in this plate. He was a conventional painter, and Hausmalerei was a separate business in which Mayer himself and workshop employees likely completed part or all of the enamel painting for a commission. Bold and elaborate gold scrollwork is also characteristic of his workshop.; On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46; Pazaurek, G. E., 1925, Deutsche Fayence und Porzellan Hausmaler.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert,1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp.540-541.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1725-1730; 1725-1730

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1987.0896.43
catalog number: 1987.0896.43
accession number: 1987.0896
collector/donor number: 376

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen rinsing bowl

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

date made: ca 1740-1745; 1740-1745

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1987.0896.14
catalog number: 1987.0896.14
accession number: 1987.0896
collector/donor number: 452

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure of a girl with flowers

Description: TITLE: Meissen figure of a girl with flowers; 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: 1750-1760; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1987.0896.33; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 72; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: 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 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 is from the series of miniature cupids, although she has no wings. She was modeled by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) or Friedrich Elias Meyer (1724-1785). She is dressed as a gardener in a gardener’s hat and holds a bouquet of flowers.; Many of the child and cupid figures are diminutive versions of adult subjects, especially gardeners, earlier modeled by Kaendler and again retouched and repaired by Acier in the 1760s. Child musicians, vintners and street traders (see the pastry seller 1993.447.03), children impersonating characters from the Italian Comedy (see 1987.0896.31), children dancing, are common themes. Drawings by, and engravings after, the French painter François Boucher, were the models for many of the child figures, especially the pastoral subjects and flower girls.; 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.; The figure is painted in overglaze enamel colors.; 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 1750-1760; 1750-1760

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1987.0896.33
catalog number: 1987.0896.33
accession number: 1987.0896
collector/donor number: 72

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen tea bowl and saucer

Description: TITLE: Meissen tea bowl and saucer; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: Tea bowl: H. 1⅝" 4.2cm; Saucer: D. 4⅝" 11.8cm; OBJECT NAME: Tea bowl and saucer; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1735-1740; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1984.1140.32ab; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1135ab; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; three small circles impressed on cup, possibly the former Gottfried Seydel (or Seidel); two six-pointed stars incised on saucer attributable to the former Christian Meynert (Meinert).; PURCHASED FROM: The Art Exchange, New York, 1960.; This tea bowl and saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; Painted in the Japanese Imari style the tea bowl and saucer have panels of purple luster with a gold diaper brocade pattern and chrysanthemum emblem alternating with white panels featuring prunus trees in flower and field chrysanthemums. The chrysanthemum emblem with its sixteen petals resembles the Japanese Imperial seal still common to many decorative items produced in contemporary Japan. Encircling a larger chrysanthemum motif in the center of the saucer is an iron-red band with a floral and foliate design left in white, and the same band encircles the interior rim of the tea bowl.; Japanese Imari wares came from kilns near the town of Arita in the north-western region of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost island, and were exported by the Dutch through the port of Imari from their trading base on the island of Dejima. Decorated in the Aka-e-machi, the enameling center in Arita, Imari wares are generally distinguished from those made in the Kakiemon style by the darker palette of enamel colors and densely patterned surfaces, some of which are clearly derived from Japanese and South-East Asian textiles and known in Japan as brocade ware (nishiki-de), but there are considerable variations within this broad outline. Unlike the Kakiemon style a high proportion of Japanese Imari wares combined underglaze blue painting with overglaze enamel colors.; Original Japanese Imari collected by the European aristocracy was much admired for its opulent decorative style. The Saxon Elector and King of Poland, Augustus II, held examples in his porcelain collection at the Japanese Palace in Dresden, and the Meissen Manufactory produced designs that were very close imitations of the Japanese originals, or independent designs based on Japanese and Chinese prototypes. When no longer imported to Europe imitations of the Imari style gained wider popularity later in the eighteenth century, most notably in the products of the English Worcester and Derby porcelain manufactorie. Royal Crown Derby continues to produce a derivative pattern called Traditional Imari today.; For a detailed account of the Imari style and its European imitators see Ayers, J., Impey, O., Mallet, J.V.G., 1990, Porcelain for Palaces: the fashion for Japan in Europe 1650-1750.See also Takeshi Nagataki, 2003, Classic Japanese Porcelain: Imari and Kakiemon; Rotondo-McCord, L., 1997, Imari: Japanese Porcelain for European Palaces: The Freda and Ralph Lupin Collection; Goro Shimura, 2008, The Story of Imari: the Symbols and Mysteries of antique Japanese Porcelain.; On Gottfried Seydel see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, p. 129; on Christian Meinert see p.121.; Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 198-199.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1735-1740; 1735-1740

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1984.1140.32ab
catalog number: 1984.1140.32ab
accession number: 1984.1140
collector/donor number: 1135ab

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen Böttger porcelain rinsing bowl (Hausmaler)

Description: TITLE: Meissen rinsing bowl (Hausmaler); MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 3¼" 8.3cm; D. 6⅞" 17.5cm; OBJECT NAME: Bowl; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1715-1720; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1983.0565.66; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 661; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: None; PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1947.; This rinsing bowl is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychoanalysis and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; The bowl was made in the Meissen manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose, and wealthy patrons of local enameling and gilding workshops purchased undecorated porcelain, often of out-moded or inferior quality, which was then enameled with subjects of their choice. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories like Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.; Hunting scenes painted in gold formed another genre alongside the chinoiseries in Hausmaler work. The rinsing bowl, designed to collect spent tea leaves and receive a rinse of water before a fresh cup filled a drinker’s tea bowl, has a fast moving hunting scene running around the exterior surface, the so-called “parforce” in which quarry was driven towards the hunters. Scrollwork consoles support the figures, and scrollwork borders decorate the interior rim of the bowl. It was painted in Augsburg, probably by Abraham Seuter (1689-1747), after 1722.; On the Augsburg Hausmaler Abraham Seuter see Ducret, S., 1971, Meissner Porzellan bemalt in Augsburg, 1718 bis um 1750, Band 1 Goldmalereien und bunte Chinoiserien.; On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 498-499.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1715-1720; ca 1715-1720

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1983.0565.66
accession number: 1983.0565
catalog number: 1983.0565.66
collector/donor number: 661

Data Source: National Museum of American History

"Liberty Bell" Footed Mug

Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1876; c. 1876-1880

ID Number: 1985.0371.0018
accession number: 1985.0371
catalog number: 1985.0371.18

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen plate

Description: TITLE: Meissen plate (Coronation service); MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: D. 8¾" 22.3cm; OBJECT NAME: Plate; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1733-1734; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing1983.0565.42; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 1983.0565.42; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1514; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “N=147/W” engraved (Johanneum mark).; PURCHASED FROM: William H. Lautz, New York, 1966.; This plate is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in 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 service to which this plate belongs, known since the nineteenth century as the Coronation Service, was probably commissioned soon after the death in 1733 of Elector of Saxony and King of Poland Augustus II, in anticipation of his son’s succession and coronation in Krakow, Poland, the following year. The coat of arms represents the union of Saxony, Poland and Lithuania and the complete service may have formed a display or ‘buffet’ in the manner of gold or silver plate at the coronation of Augustus III at Wawel Castle in Krakow in 1734, especially as some of the dishes made were unusually large. On such an important royal occasion the new king and his guests would eat from a silver service rather than porcelain.; Surrounding the coat of arms framed by a cartouche in Böttger luster and gold surmounted by a royal crown are scattered enamel painted Kakiemon flowers and rice-sheaves. An elaborate border of lozenges, leaf and strap work (Laub und Bandelwerk) painted in gold surrounds the rim of the plate which has no foot ring on the underside, instead the center is sunken in the manner of Chinese plates of the eighteenth century and other plates from this service have the same atypical form. Recorded in the 1779 inventory in Dresden the service numbered 77 pieces in total of which 37 were plates.; For more examples of this service see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 96-97; 277-278; Pietsch, U., 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: the Wark Collection from the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, p. 459.; Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 286-287.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1730-1735; 1730-1735

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: 1983.0565.42
accession number: 1983.0565
catalog number: 1983.0565.42
collector/donor number: 1514

Data Source: National Museum of American History

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