Natural Resources

Meissen figure of a grape seller

Description: TITLE: Meissen figure of a grape seller; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: 5¼" 14.6 cm.; OBJECT NAME: Figure; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1753-1754; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 76.371; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 243; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARK: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: E. Pinkus, New York, 1943.; This figure is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; Paris and London, two bustling commercial cities, generated a large population of street vendors providing hot beverages like coffee and chocolate, bread rolls, pies, and buns. Fruits and vegetables from nearby farms were sold when in season, as well as luxury fruits like oranges and lemons imported from Spain. Grapes, which this young man sells, were of course available in France, but had to be transported across country to Paris. Herbs and items like watercress were collected in the countryside and sold on the streets for use in salads and for medicinal purposes.; This figure, probably modeled by Johann Joachim Kaendler(1706-1775) and Peter Reinicke (1715-1768, belongs to a series taken from designs for the Cries of Paris by the Parisian engraver Christophe Huet (1692-1765), and possibly commissioned by Johann Joachim Kaendler on a visit to Paris in the early 1750s. In this second series of the Cries of Paris the style of modeling is less animated than the earlier group modeled by Kaendler after the drawings by Edmé Bouchardon. The figure carries a pair of scales over his left arm for weighing the grapes.; The subject of street traders in the visual arts has a long history reaching back into the cities of the ancient world. City inhabitants, especially the working poor who lived in cramped accommodations with little or no facilities for cooking, depended heavily on the fast food and drink provided by street vendors and bake houses. Street sellers were themselves poor, and the range of goods sold or bartered varied widely, limited only by what could be carried by the individual, wheeled in a barrow, or loaded onto a donkey, mule or ass sometimes pulling a cart. People of a higher social class regarded street traders with contempt on the one hand, but also as colorful curiosities on the other, often in conflict with one another and with city authorities. In 1500, a series of anonymous woodcuts titled the Cries of Paris was an early example of what became a highly popular genre in print form well into the nineteenth century, and especially so in commercially active cities like Paris and London where street sellers formed not only part of the spectacle of display and consumption, but also the raucous sound of the street as they vocalized their merchandise; 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 and gold.; On street traders see Shesgreen, S., 1990, The Criers and Hawkers of London: Engravings and Drawings by Marcellus Laroon.; 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, pp. 454-455.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1750-1760; 1750-1760

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.76.371
catalog number: 76.371
accession number: 1977.0166
collector/donor number: 243

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure of a miner

Description: MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.; This figure of a miner 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 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.; Saxony’s miners held a high status in comparison to other laboring communities, mining silver, lead, copper, cobalt, and bismuth out of the rich Erzgebirge (Ore Mountains) in the south-west region of the Saxon State. The figure seen here represents a miner in his parade livery with an axe carried over his right shoulder. On his hat the emblem of crossed mining picks is painted in gold, and crossed swords - just like the mark on Meissen porcelains - are painted on his belt buckle. Miners worked hard rock to get at the ores, with water and toxic fumes their constant enemies. Smelters and furnace workers who processed the ores also belonged to the mining industry (bergbauindustrie), as did the surveyors responsible for mapping the complex underground seams of ore, and the engineers who built and worked the machinery that kept the mineshafts open.; The Meissen modelers Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) and Peter Reinicke (d. 1768) produced the original figure for this and other mining subjects. Kaendler, who joined Meissen in 1731 after working for the Dresden court sculptor Benjamin Thomae (1682-1751), developed a baroque style and a scale for porcelain figures that successfully exploited the nature of the material. The mining figures were based on prints from a publication by Christoph Weigel of Nuremberg, Die Abbildung und Beschreibung derer sämtlichen Berg-Wercks und Hütten Beamten und Bedienten nach ihrem gewöhnlichen Rang und Ordnung im behörigen Hütten-Habit [The representation and description of all the mining and metallurgy officials and their subordinates in appropriate livery according to their customary rank and order]. Mining personnel wore these garments at the elaborate parades that formed part of the court festivals held to celebrate anniversaries, betrothals, and weddings in the European court calendar. One of the most spectacular was the Saturn Festival held in 1719 to celebrate the marriage of Augustus II Elector of Saxony's son, the electoral prince Friedrich Augustus, to Princess Maria Josepha of Austria, the daughter of the Emperor Joseph I. (See Watanabe O'Kelly, H., Court Culture in Dresden: From Renaissance to Baroque, 2002).; It was the custom in court entertainments to decorate banqueting tables with figures made from sugar, and the design of these elaborate ornaments was the task of the court sculptors. When Kaendler took up his post as a modeler at Meissen he was quick to see that porcelain could add to or replace sugar in this function. This figurine was one among many in a series that depicted the work of miners, and collectively formed a table decoration on this theme.; The Meissen Manufactory uses the same techniques today to make individual figures and figure groups as it did in the eighteenth century. The original figure, sculpted in wax or modeler’s clay, is cut into smaller pieces from which plaster of Paris molds are taken. This miner is a relatively simple subject, but complex figure groups often require up to seventy separate molds. It is the job of the Meissen manufactory’s team of figure specialists to reassemble the figures from porcelain pressed into, and then released from the molds when still damp. The pieces are then stuck carefully in place and the complete figure group is dried slowly and evenly before firing. (See Pietsch, U. Triumph of the Blue Swords, 2010, pp. 61-67; pp.121-131).; Syz, H., Rückert, R., Miller, J. J. II., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 440-441.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1750; 1750

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.65.387
catalog number: 65.387
collector/donor number: 422
accession number: 262623

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure of a woman in Turkish dress from a plat de ménage

Description: TITLE: Meissen figure of a woman in Turkish dress from a plat de ménage; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: 6½" 16.5 cm.; OBJECT NAME: Figure; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1745-1750; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 65.383; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 44; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARK: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; 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.; Modeled by Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1696-1749), the woman in oriental dress sits beside a covered bowl molded with a basket weave pattern designed to serve sugar or salt in a plat de ménage. A similar model exists of a man with the same bowl. The Plats de Ménage served as elaborate table-center pieces with containers designed to hold flavorings for food: mustard, spices, salt, sugar, oil, vinegar, and often, rising above the cruet set on a sculpted column, a bowl or basket for lemons, an expensive and prestigious luxury on the eighteenth-century dining table. The Plats de Ménage were based on silver prototypes and designed to “save” (French épargner) space at the table set with dishes for the French style of service popular in the eighteenth century.; The Ottoman Empire, known as the “Turkish” empire, was once part of Europe with a long held presence in the southeast of the continent, but while it was an entity feared by many, Ottoman Turkey was also a source of fascination that for 200 years before the eighteenth century influenced European literature, theater, and the visual arts. By the 1700s European towns and cities had “Turkish”-style coffee houses, people ate “Turkish” sweets, smoked “Turkish” pipes, and wore “Turkish”-style garments. The figure here is of a European woman in Turkish-style dress, a form of luxurious clothing adopted by the social elites.; A publication about the wider Middle East that made a great impression on the European imagination was the Recueil de cent Estampes representant differentes nations du Levant (Collection of One hundred Prints of the Various Nations of the Levant) with engravings by Louis Gérard Scotin (1690-1751) after the drawings by Jacques Le Hay after the paintings by Jean Baptiste van Mour (1671-1737). In 1699, the French ambassador appointed to Istanbul was the Marquis Charles de Ferriol. Early in the eighteenth century he commissioned the young Flemish painter Jean Baptiste van Mour to record Ottoman court life and the social customs, social classes, and occupations of Istanbul and the Ottoman Empire. The published collection of prints fired the imagination of those who saw the volume in 1714-15. The Meissen modeler Peter Eberlein based figures of a Persian, of a Sultana, and a Bulgarian woman on Scotin’s engravings after Le Hay.; 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 with gold highlights on the basket. “Indian flowers” (indianische Blumen) decorate the long tunic under her mantel.; On the Plat de Ménage see Katharina Hantschmann, “The plat de ménage: The Centerpiece on the Banqueting Table” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 107-119.; On Jean-Baptiste Vanmour see Nefedova-Gruntova, O, 2009, A Journey into the World of the Ottomans:The Art of Jean-Baptiste Vanmour. See also Williams, H., 2014, Turquerie: An Eighteenth-Century European Fantasy.; 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, pp. 456-457.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1750; 1750

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.65.383ab
catalog number: 65.383ab
accession number: 262623
collector/donor number: 44

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen saucer

Description: TITLE: Meissen saucer; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: D. 4⅝" 11.8cm; OBJECT NAME: Saucer; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1730-1740; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 72.16; COLLECTOR/DONOR: 1613; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; Gift from Dr. Andreina Torré, Ars Domi, Zurich, Switzerland, 1972.; This saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; The interior of this saucer has a design in the Japanese Kakiemon style of two cranes and a bamboo trellis on which stylized flowers grow. On the exterior of the saucer there is a purple ground. The Meissen pattern was based on a Japanese Kakiemon prototype but it is not an exact copy.; Kakiemon is the name given to very white (nigoshida meaning milky-white) finely potted Japanese porcelain made in the Nangawara Valley near the town of Arita in the North-West of the island of Kyushu. The porcelain bears a characteristic style of enamel painting using a palette of translucent colors painted with refined assymetric designs attributed to a family of painters with the name Kakiemon. In the 1650s, when Chinese porcelain was in short supply due to civil unrest following the fall of the Ming Dynasty to the Manchu in 1644, Arita porcelain was at first exported to Europe through the Dutch East India Company’s base on the island of Dejima in the Bay of Nagasaki. The Japanese traded Arita porcelain only with Chinese, Korean, and Dutch merchants and the Chinese resold Japanese porcelain to the Dutch in Batavia (present day Jakarta), to the English and French at the port of Canton (present day Guangzhou) and Amoy (present day Xiamen). Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, obtained Japanese porcelain through his agents operating in Amsterdam who purchased items from Dutch merchants, and from a Dutch dealer in Dresden, Elizabeth Bassetouche.; For millennia cranes have held symbolic meaning across the globe featuring in the myths and legends of many peoples with a rich presence in visual culture from antiquity to the present day. In Japan the indigenous red-crowned crane is sacred and associated with longevity, fidelity, prosperity, and good health. Cranes commonly live for 40-60 years and they pair for life which accounts for their popularity as a symbol in Japan for a long and happy marriage, and they are often used as decoration on a bride’s kimono. The birds on this saucer are stylized and not faithful to the Japanese tradition of painting in which the red-crowned crane is easily identifiable.; For comparison see this subject painted on a tankard and cover in Hawes, S., Corsiglia, C., 1984, The Rita and Fritz Markus Collection of European Ceramics and Enamels, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, pp. 111-113. For an example of the pattern on a pair of cups and saucers see Pietsch, U., 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: the Wark Collectionfrom the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, p.286, and for other objects with the same pattern see pp.284-285; see also den Blaauwen, A. L., 2000, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, pp. 221-222 for an example of the design on a pair of vases with yellow grounds.; On the Japanese Kakiemon 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, with an example of the same pattern on a Meissen butter tub and cover p. 264, and for an example of the pattern on a Chelsea porcelain plate see p. 283.; Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 150-151.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1730-1740

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.72.016
catalog number: 72.016
accession number: 299566
collector/donor number: 1613

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen chinoiserie miniature teapot and cover

Description: TITLE: Meissen chinoiserie miniature teapot and cover; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 3⅜" 8.5cm; OBJECT NAME: Teapot; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1740; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 67.1041 a,b; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 703; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)TITLE: Meissen chinoiserie miniature teapot and cover; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 3⅜" 8.5cm; OBJECT NAME: Teapot; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1740; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 67.1041 a,b; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 703; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “14” in gold (gold painter’s mark); “36” impressed (former’s mark).; PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1947. Ex. Coll. Constantinidi.; This teapot 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 ovoid teapot belongs to the last years in the distinctive chinoiserie period in Meissen’s history that began in 1720 with the arrival from Vienna of Johann Gregor Höroldt (1696-1775). Höroldt brought with him superior skills in enamel painting on porcelain, and 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. Application of the term chinoiserie to this class of Meissen porcelains is problematic, however, because Johann Gregor Höroldt developed his 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.; The chinoiserie subjects are here framed by simple gold reserves in a yellow onglaze ground. On one side a man holds a parasol over a woman with a child in her arms while another child calls for attention nearby, and on the other side a cauldron smokes behind a man and a child as a figure leaves the scene weighted down by a basket loaded with vessels containing hot food or liquor. On the cover are two scenes depicting the preparation and drinking of tea. The scenes are painted in the style of Johann Gregor Höroldt.; 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.; Meissen tea and coffee services of this early period were often sent as gifts to members of European royalty favored by the Saxon and Polish courts. They served as tokens of loyalty and affection to relatives in other royal houses with family connections to the Saxon House of Wettin. A small teapot like this one might have belonged to a service packed in a special box designed for travel.; 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 colored grounds see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 267-274.; 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; On gift-giving see Cassidy-Geiger, M., 2008, Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for European Courts 1710-1763.; Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, pp. 84-85.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1740; 1740

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.67.1041ab
catalog number: 67.1041ab
collector/donor number: 703
accession number: 276588

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen chinoiserie coffeepot and cover

Description: TITLE: Meissen chinoiserie coffeepot and cover; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 6⅞" 17.5cm; OBJECT NAME: Coffeepot; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1725-1735; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 76.364 a,b; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 282 a,b; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords with curved guards in a double circle all in underglaze blue; incised cross (former’s mark).; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, TheArt Exchange, New York, 1943.; This coffeepot 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.; Painted with chinoiserie figures and Indian flowers (indianische Blumen) that allow for a large expanse of white background this style of work is attributed to Johann Ehrenfried Stadler (1701-1741) who worked for Peter Eggebrecht’s Dresden faience manufactory before employment at Meissen. His work is associated with figures that stand, run or trot along fenced terraces carrying fans, kites or parasols beside exuberant foliage and flowers. On this pot a figure regards an exotic bird while trotting along a terrace and a woman stands holding an ornate fan.; 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 developed his 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.; 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, pp. 88-89.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1725-1735

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.76.364ab
catalog number: 76.364ab
accession number: 1977.0166
collector/donor number: 282ab

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen plate

Description: TITLE: Meissen plate; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: D. 8¾" 22.3cm; OBJECT NAME: Plate; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1730; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 63.246; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 779; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords with curved guards and “K” in underglaze blue (painter’s mark).; PURCHASED FROM: William H. Lautz, New York, 1948.; 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 plate has a scalloped rim and is decorated in the Japanese Imari style with polychrome onglaze enamel chrysanthemums painted in the center on white, and framed by a bold lambrequin design with alternating panels of stylized flowers. Painted on the underside of the stand are flowers and prunus branches in underglaze blue and iron-red.; The plate is one of many decorated with variations on this pattern based on a Japanese model that is still in the porcelain collection of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden, but with a less ornate design in dark blue, iron-red, and gold. Meissen began production of a dinner service in about 1730, and one such was delivered to the palace of Wilanow, the royal residence in Warsaw, in 1732.; The so-called lambrequin pattern is a term used by Western scholars to describe the panels that are reminiscent of ornamental fringes on ceremonial textile canopies or baldechins, but here most likely a Meissen copy of Japanese imitations of Chinese porcelains decorated with panels of stylized lotus blossoms that the Chinese adopted from Indian, and especially Tibetan Buddhist iconography in paintings, statuary, and textiles.; 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 from their base on the island of Dejima through the port of Imari. Decorated in the enameling center of Arita, Imari wares are generally distinguished from those made in the Kakiemon style by the darker palette of enamel colors and densely patterned surfaces.; Original Japanese Imari collected by the European aristocracy was much admired for its opulent decorative style. 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 manufactories, and 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 Rotondo-McCord, L., 1997, Imari: Japanese Porcelain for European Palaces: The Freda and Ralph Lupin Collection; Takeshi Nagataki, 2003, Classic Japanese Porcelain: Imari and Kakiemon; Goro Shimura, 2008, The Story of Imari: the Symbols and Mysteries of antique Japanese Porcelain.; For more examples and details about the lambrequin pattern see Weber, J., 2013, Meissener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern: Stiftung Ernst Schneider in Schloss Lustheim, Band II, S. 65-81, with a companion plate to this one from the collection of Hans Syz Katalog Nr. 60, S. 78-79.; On the impact of Chinese porcelain in a global context see Robert Finlay, 2010, The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History.; Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, pp. 202-203.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1730; 1730

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.63.246
catalog number: 63.246
collector/donor number: 779
accession number: 250446

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen underglaze blue vinegar pot

Description: MARKS: Crossed swords and “8” in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.; This oil pot is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the 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 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 clear image like the Chinese cobalt blue painted porcelains. 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.; Painted on the oil pot is the so-called “onion pattern” (zwiebelmuster) based on motifs found in Chinese blue and white porcelain of the Kangxi period (1662-1722) but designed at Meissen, and a modified pattern is still in production today. The flower commonly seen on this pattern is a chrysanthemum -seen here on the lower section of the pot -which represents immortality in Chinese culture, and is also associated with the sun because of its radial petals of gold and yellow hues. The so-called ‘onion’ represents a stylized pomegranate, a symbol of fertility and good fortune in China.; The pot’s cover is missing. To indicate its mellow contents the mask at the base of the spout has a smile rather than a grimace, and it has a dragon head at its tip. The pot was part of a plat de ménage or epargne, an elaborate centerpiece on the dining table containing condiments to accompany the main dishes. For a similar example with a lid intact see the exhibition catalog Triumph of the blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, edited by Ulrich Pietsch and Claudia Banz, Dresden and Leipzig: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and E.A. Seemann Verlag, 2010, p. 266.; 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. 244-245.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1730-1735

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.71.203
catalog number: 71.203
accession number: 297499
collector/donor number: 402

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure of a drinker

Description: TITLE: Meissen figure of a drinker; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: 4¾" 12.1 cm; OBJECT NAME: Figure; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1745-1750; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 75.190; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 432; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords on an unglazed base.; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.; 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.; A figure of a man drinking, variously described as Dutch or Polish, was modeled by Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1685-1749) in the mid-to-late 1740s. Figures of this type were not seen in isolation, but formed part of a group representing the world of the rural peasant or city people of foreign lands displayed alongside sugar sculptures on the dessert table for the entertainment of guests. Small models of dwellings completed the illusion of place created in miniature form. The Saxon court held events in which its members impersonated people living on the land, creating for themselves a fantasy about those living on the opposite spectrum of the social hierarchy.; Figures of drinkers, or topers, were common to the repertoire of small-scale sculpture in many eighteenth-century porcelain manufactories, and in the fine earthenware and faience manufactories.; 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, pp. 424-425.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1745-1750; 1745-1750

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.75.190
catalog number: 75.190
collector/donor number: 432
accession number: 319073

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure of Scaramouche

Description: TITLE: Meissen figure of Scaramouche; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: 5¼" 13.3 cm.; OBJECT NAME: Figure; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1745; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 64.440; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 220; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: None; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.; This figure is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; Peter Reinicke (1715-1768) modeled this figure in about 1743 to 1745. There are two versions of Scaramouche and it is not clear in which order they were modeled. This figure belongs to the Duke of Weissenfel’s series.; Scaramouche, one of the stock characters of the Italian Comedy troupe, was a rascally and unreliable servant who got himself into trouble through his own acts of mischief. He got himself out of trouble by ensnaring an unwitting and innocent individual who then fell victim to the fury of the characters that Scaramouche himself had injured. Scaramouche is seen here in a characteristic dancing pose, and dance was an important part of the Italian Comedy performances.; Johann Adolf II Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels commissioned a set of Italian Comedy figures for table decoration in 1743. The Meissen sculptors Johann Joachim Kändler (1706-1775), Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1695-1749), and Peter Reinicke (1711-1768) collaborated on the project. The Meissen sculptors based their Italian Comedy figures for the Duke on engravings in Louis Riccoboni’s (1676-1753) Histoire du Théâtre Italien (History of the Italian Theater) published in Paris in 1728. Born in Modena as Luigi Riccoboni, he followed his father onto the stage, but was not satisfied with the improvised and chaotic nature of the Italian comedy. He moved to Paris and started his own company which faltered at first until Riccoboni began to write his own more refined plays in French based on the Commedia dell’Arte comedic plots and stock characters.; Riccoboni’s plays were highly successful with Parisian audiences, and because often performed in public places the Italian Comedy reached a wide cross-section of society. The subject of the Italian comedy characters influenced painters, especially Antoine Watteau (1684-1721), who in turn influenced other French artists of the eighteenth century; his student Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Pater (1695-1736), Nicholas Lancret (1690-1743), François Boucher (1703-1770, Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1732-1806). Ten of the engravings used by the Meissen sculptors were by the Parisian engraver, print-seller, dealer and auctioneer, François Joullain (1697-1778) and published in Riccoboni’s Histoire du Théâtre Italien. Origins of the Commedia dell’Arte are in dispute, but the form of the Italian comedy that emerged in the sixteenth century was fundamentally one that grew from the carnival, from popular story telling, rustic romps, and improvised street theater. The characters did not change much, only the plots varied, but the Italian Comedy’s influence may be seen still in Punch and Judy marionettes, the work of mime artists, in the movies of Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton, the Marx Brothers, in twentieth century modernist art and theater, and in situation comedies on TV.; The Meissen Italian Comedy figures were used for decorating the dessert table for official and festive banquets. They formed part of the design in conjunction with decorations sculpted in sugar and other materials to create an elaborate display for the final course of the meal. The practice of sculpting in sugar, marzipan, butter, and ice for the festive table goes back for many centuries, and porcelain figures were a late addition to the tradition.; The figure is painted in overglaze enamel colors and gold.; On the Saxon court confectionary see Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, 'The Hof Conditorey in Dresden: Traditions and innovations in Sugar and Porcelain", in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, pp.121-131.; See also Ivan Day, 'Sculpture for the Eighteenth-Century Garden Dessert', in Harlan Walker (ed.) Food in the Arts: Proceedings of the Oxford Symposium on Food and Cooking, 1999.; On the Italian Comedy see Meredith Chilton, 2001, Harlequin Unmasked: The Commedia dell’Arte and Porcelain Sculpture; Lawner, L., 1998, Harlequin on the Moon: Commedia dell’Arte and the Visual Arts, and also On the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History see http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/comm/hd_comm.htm; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, pp. 448-449.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1745; 1745

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.64.440
catalog number: 64.440
accession number: 257835
collector/donor number: 220

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure from the Monkey Band

Description: TITLE: Meissen figure of a monkey flautist; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: 5¾" 14.6 cm; OBJECT NAME: Figure; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1765-1766; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 65.386; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 379; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “14” impressed (series number).; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.; This figure is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; The Monkey Band, begun by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) in about 1747 and completed by him with Peter Reinicke ((1715-1768) by 1766, was a very popular series. The nineteen figures were based on drawings by Christophe Huet (1692-1765) in the manner of his singeries, the painted interiors featuring anthropomorphic monkey figures in the Chateau of Chantilly north of Paris and in the Hôtel de Rohan in Paris itself.; A music stand in the Monkey Band identifies the figure group with the opera seria Lucio Pipirio Dittatore by Johann Adolph Hasse (1699-1783) premiered in Dresden in 1742. German by birth, Hasse was a prolific and highly successful composer in the Italian style, and with his equally successful wife, the singer Faustina Bordoni (1700-1781), he worked for several European courts, but composed and directed music for the Dresden court for most of his active career.; Like the chinoiseries, the singeries represented an exotic fantasy, but one that expressed a form of mockery of human behavior. Monkeys were exotic pets, and captive chimpanzees were a source of great interest because of their obvious kinship to humans that both fascinated and repelled Europeans. Where did a chimpanzee or a monkey stand in relation to the human species? Eighteenth-century naturalists asked questions that sought to throw light on the nature of being human, and they looked for answers and understanding in the behavior of other animals.; 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. The figure is painted in overglaze enamel colors.; Go to the Rhode Island School of Design Museum for more information on the Monkey Band with a recording of the fragment of notes visible on the music stand: http://risdmuseum.org/notes/151_live_from_risd_its_the_meissen_monkey_band; 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, pp. 458-459.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1750; 1750

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.65.386
catalog number: 65.386
accession number: 262623
collector/donor number: 379

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure of a stag

Description: TITLE: Meissen figure of a stag; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: 7⅝" 19.4 cm; OBJECT NAME: Animal figure; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1750; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 76.373; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 344; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARK: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: Arthur S. Vernay Inc., New York, 1943.; This animal 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; One of master modeler Johann Joachim Kaendler’s (1706-1775) great strengths was his skill for modeling animals. He made life studies of animals and birds in the menagerie and aviary of the Dresden court, but one abiding eighteenth-century passion was the hunt, and deer hunting especially so. The stag represented here, and probably modeled by Kaendler, is a ‘royal’ stag marked by the twelve points or tines on the antlers. The stag is possibly modeled on a print by Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1767), one of four images titled Deer in the Wild. Ridinger was a painter, draughtsman, etcher and engraver, and a publisher of prints specializing in animal subjects. It is also known that Kaendler drew animals from life, probably using for his sources the Elector of Saxony’s stock of wild game corralled for hunting.; Deer were high status game in the extravagant hunts conducted by the royal and princely courts in eighteenth-century Europe. A hunt was obligatory during the many court festivities held to mark betrothals, marriages, peace treaties, and feast days, but hunting inflicted a heavy toll on the environment. Game like red deer and wild boar were kept in hunting preserves that enclosed large tracts of woodland, and their presence in large numbers degraded the new growth of the forest. It was common practice to shoot game driven in herds across the line of fire, and in order to maintain sufficient numbers of animals many were caught in the wild and transported to the hunting preserves. Eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinkers criticized the royal and princely hunting administrations for the damage caused to the environment, especially the shortage of wood caused by degradation of the forests.; These small figures of animals were used for decorating the dessert table for festive banquets associated with the hunt. They formed part of the design in conjunction with decorations sculpted in sugar and other materials to create an elaborate display for the final course of the meal. The practice of sculpting in sugar, marzipan, butter, and ice for the festive table goes back for many centuries, and porcelain figures were a late addition to the tradition.; 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 animal 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.; On the hunt see Kroll, M., 2004, ‘Hunting in the Eighteenth Century: An Environmental Perspective’ in Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung Vol. 9, No. 3, pp.9-36; On decorating the dessert table see Cassidy-Geiger, M. "The Hof-Conditorey in Dresden: Traditions and Innovations in Sugar and Porcelain", in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, pp. 121-131.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 480-481.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1755; 1755

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.76.373
catalog number: 76.373
accession number: 1977.0166
collector/donor number: 344

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure of a deer: one of a pair

Description: TITLE: Meissen: A pair of does; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: 4½" 11.5 cm; OBJECT NAME: Animal figures; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1758; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 76.375 A,B; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 359,360; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARK: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1943.; These animal figures are from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in , 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; Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) modeled the two does in about 1758 from an original group that comprised a doe and two dogs. The figures may be based on one of series of prints by Johann Elias Ridinger (1698-1767) titled Deer in the Wild. Ridinger was a painter, draughtsman, etcher and engraver, and a publisher of prints specializing in animal subjects. On the other hand, the figures may have originated from Kaendler’s own observations of live animals. In his work books held in the Meissen Manufactory archives, Kaendler frequently refers to models that he changed or amended over the years; from a clay model taken from the existing molds it was possible to refashion a figure or figure group.; Deer were high status game in the extravagant hunts conducted by the royal and princely courts in eighteenth-century Europe. A hunt was obligatory during the many court festivities held to mark betrothals, marriages, peace treaties, and feast days, but hunting inflicted a heavy toll on the environment. Game like red deer and wild boar were kept in hunting preserves that enclosed large tracts of woodland, and their presence in large numbers degraded the new growth of the forest. It was common practice to shoot game driven in herds across the line of fire, and in order to maintain sufficient numbers animals were caught in the wild and transported to the hunting preserves. Eighteenth-century Enlightenment thinkers criticized the royal and princely hunting administrations for the damage caused to the environment, especially the shortage of wood caused by degradation of the forests.; These small figures of animals were used for decorating the dessert table for festive banquets associated with the hunt, and these figures were probably part of a herd of deer. They formed part of the design in conjunction with decorations sculpted in sugar and other materials to create an elaborate display for the final course of the meal. The practice of sculpting in sugar, marzipan, butter, and ice for the festive table goes back for many centuries, and porcelain figures were a late addition to the tradition.; 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 animals are 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.; On the hunt see Kroll, M., 2004, ‘Hunting in the Eighteenth Century: An Environmental Perspective’ in Historical Social Research/Historische Sozialforschung Vol. 9, No. 3, pp.9-36.; On the dessert table see Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, 'The Hof Conditorey in Dresden: Traditions and Innovations in Sugar and Porcelain', in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, pp. 121-131.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, pp. 482-483.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1755; 1755

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.76.375B
catalog number: 76.375B
accession number: 1977.0166
collector/donor number: 360

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen figure of a hurdy-gurdy player

Description: TITLE: Meissen figure of a man playing the hurdy-gurdy; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: 5⅜" 13.7 cm.; OBJECT NAME: Figure; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1735-1740; SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 66.172; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 614; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARK: ‘33’ impressed; PURCHASED FROM: E. Pinkus, New York, 1947.; 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.; Modeled by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) in the late 1730s or early 1740s the figure was copied by the Chelsea Manufactory in London in 1755. The figure represents a beggar playing the hurdy-gurdy. A semi-mechanical device, the hurdy-gurdy is a stringed instrument akin to the violin that dispenses with the bow, instead using a wooden wheel that rotates on a shaft turned by a hand crank. The sound produced by the wheel against the drone strings that play individual notes in harmony is akin to the reed pipes on a bagpipe. Using a keyboard with one hand while turning the wheel crank in the other, the musician plays the melody over the drone sound. The hurdy-gurdy was the first stringed instrument to exploit the keyboard, and it was played in Europe at least as far back as the twelfth century. It was one of the folk instruments played at country fairs and in the streets of towns and cities, far from the refined musical activities of the court until it later became fashionable for aristocratic men and women to play the instrument.; 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. There is a companion figure of a beggar woman, and these figures were probably used in table decorations for the dessert course at court banquets.; On the hurdy-gurdy see the New Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments Vol. 2, 1984, pp.260-264; Ling, J., 1997, A History of European Folk Music, pp.148-151.; On the modeling and molding process still practiced today at Meissen see Alfred Ziffer, “‘…skillfully made ready for moulding…’ The Work of Johann Joachim Kaendler” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgeoisie 1710-1815, pp.61-67, and pp. 351-352.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 422-423.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1735-1740; 1735-1740

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.66.172
catalog number: 66.172
collector/donor number: 614
accession number: 270694

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen: two vases

Description: TITLE: Meissen: Pair of vases; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 11⅝" 29.6cm; OBJECT NAME: Pair of vases; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1725-1735; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 64.428 AB; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 735 AB; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1947.; This pair of vases 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 two vases are not an identical pair, and the form is similar to earlier Meissen vessels made in Johann Friedrich Böttger’s red stoneware. The onglaze enamel painting is in the so-called Indian flowers style (indianische Blumen), a Meissen genre developed from Chinese and Japanese prototypes that typically features heavy growth of stylized chrysanthemums and peonies emerging from a rocky garden with birds and insects flying above or sheltering under the blossoms. Many of the vases with this type of pattern were made for Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and delivered to the Japanese Palace, but these two vases do not have the customary AR (Augustus Rex) mark that usually identifies such pieces, some of which are impressive and made in groups of seven as garnitures for installation in the Palace or sent to other European courts as diplomatic gifts.; In early eighteenth-century Europe “Indian” referred to imported luxury goods that came from India and the Far East principally through the Dutch and English East India Companies, but with no specific reference to the Indian subcontinent. For the Dutch and English East India Companies the trade in spices, tea, and textiles was much larger and more profitable than in porcelain or other luxuries like laquer goods, furniture made from exotic woods, and gemstones. European trade with the East was complex and fluid, achieved through several international trading ports in the South China Sea, the Indonesian Archipelago, and the Indian subcontinent, with the Dutch in particular engaging in inter-Asian trade of commodities like copper that did not reach European shores in large quantities.; For other examples of Meissen porcelain in the Indian flowers style see Weber, J., 2013, Meissener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern: Stiftung Ernst Schneider in Schloss Lustheim, pp. 436-444 Vasen mit indianischen Blumen ; den Blaauwen, A. L., 2000, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, pp.50-61.; On the English East India Company see for example, Lawson, P., 2014, The East India Company: A History; on the Dutch East India Company and its trade with Japan in commodities like copper see Yasuko Suzuki, 2012, Japan-Netherlands Trade 1600-1800: the Dutch East India Company and Beyond. On the impact of Chinese porcelain on a global scale see Finlay, R., 2010, The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert,1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 184-185.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1725-1735; 1725-1735

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.64.428A
catalog number: 64.428A
collector/donor number: 735A
accession number: 257835

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen: two vases

Description: TITLE: Meissen: Pair of vases; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 11⅝" 29.6cm; OBJECT NAME: Pair of vases; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1725-1735; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 64.428 AB; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 735 AB; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1947.; This pair of vases 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 two vases are not an identical pair, and the form is similar to earlier Meissen vessels made in Johann Friedrich Böttger’s red stoneware. The onglaze enamel painting is in the so-called Indian flowers style (indianische Blumen), a Meissen genre developed from Chinese and Japanese prototypes that typically features heavy growth of stylized chrysanthemums and peonies emerging from a rocky garden with birds and insects flying above or sheltering under the blossoms. Many of the vases with this type of pattern were made for Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and delivered to the Japanese Palace, but these two vases do not have the customary AR (Augustus Rex) mark that usually identifies such pieces, some of which are impressive and made in groups of seven as garnitures for installation in the Palace or sent to other European courts as diplomatic gifts.; In early eighteenth-century Europe “Indian” referred to imported luxury goods that came from India and the Far East principally through the Dutch and English East India Companies, but with no specific reference to the Indian subcontinent. For the Dutch and English East India Companies the trade in spices, tea, and textiles was much larger and more profitable than in porcelain or other luxuries like laquer goods, furniture made from exotic woods, and gemstones. European trade with the East was complex and fluid, achieved through several international trading ports in the South China Sea, the Indonesian Archipelago, and the Indian subcontinent, with the Dutch in particular engaging in inter-Asian trade of commodities like copper that did not reach European shores in large quantities.; For other examples of Meissen porcelain in the Indian flowers style see Weber, J., 2013, Meissener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern: Stiftung Ernst Schneider in Schloss Lustheim, pp. 436-444 Vasen mit indianischen Blumen ; den Blaauwen, A. L., 2000, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, pp.50-61.; On the English East India Company see for example, Lawson, P., 2014, The East India Company: A History; on the Dutch East India Company and its trade with Japan in commodities like copper see Yasuko Suzuki, 2012, Japan-Netherlands Trade 1600-1800: the Dutch East India Company and Beyond. On the impact of Chinese porcelain on a global scale see Finlay, R., 2010, The Pilgrim Art: Cultures of Porcelain in World History.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 184-185.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1725-1735; 1725-1735

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.64.428B
catalog number: 64.428B
collector/donor number: 735B
accession number: 257835

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen plate

Description: TITLE: Meissen plate; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: D. 9¼" 23.5cm; OBJECT NAME: Plate; 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: 63.243; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 211; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “E” impressed.; PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1942.; 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.; Painted with naturalistic flowers in overglaze enamels this plate has a basket weave relief border, the earliest of its type produced at Meissen called the Sulkowsky pattern, and named after Alexander Joseph von Sulkowsky (1695-1762) who was a favorite at the Saxon court rising to a position of considerable power before falling from grace in 1738. The Sulkowsky service was the first private commission for an armorial table service for which Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775) introduced this particular basket weave design. Following Kaendler’s appointment to the manufactory in 1733 modeling techniques became more sophisticated, and the process of creating shallow relief patterns for table services was laborious and required considerable skill. The Sulkowsky pattern was followed by many more designs in relief for tablewares.; Introduced in about 1740, European flowers became a significant feature as a decorative element in Meissen’s production. At first the flower painters focused mainly on floral species native to Germany and referred to Johann Wilhelm Weinmann’s publication, the Phytantoza Iconographia (Nuremberg 1737-1745), in which many of the plates were engraved after drawings by the outstanding botanical illustrator Georg Dionys Ehret (1708-1770). Depicted on this plate are 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. The more formally correct German flowers were superseded by mannered flowers (manier Blumen), depicted in this looser and somewhat overblown style based on the work of still-life flower painters and interior designers like Jean-Baptiste Monnoyer (1636-1699) and Louis Tessier (1719?-1781), later referred to as “naturalistic” flowers.; The plate has design elements from different periods in Meissen’s production: the Sulkowsky relief pattern originally modeled by Johann Joachim Kaendler in 1733, and the naturalistic flowers of fifteen to twenty years later. The basket weave relief was based on Japanese examples of woven designs imitated on imported porcelain vessels and depicted in engravings by European travelers to the Far East.; 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. 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 the Sulkowsky relief pattern see Reinheckel, G., 1968, ‘Plastiche Dekorationsformen im Meissner Porzellan des 18 Jahrhunderts’ in Keramos, 41/42, Juli/Oktober, pp. 52-55.; 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. 384-385.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: 1740-1745; 1750-1760

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.63.243
catalog number: 63.243
accession number: 250446
collector/donor number: 211; 211a

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen lemon basket (from a plat de ménage)

Description: TITLE: Meissen lemon basket from a Plat de Ménage; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 10¾" 27.3cm; OBJECT NAME: Lemon basket; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1735-1740; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 63.263; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 53; 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 lemon basket 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.; This lemon basket was part of a ‘plat de ménage’ that served as a centerpiece on the dining or banqueting table, also known as an ‘Epargne’ from the French épargner’ meaning to serve and often made in silver or silver gilt. The ‘plat de ménage’ held cruet sets containing various condiments like oil and vinegar, mustard, salt, spices, and sugar for guests to season their food during service in the French style of three main savory courses before the often spectacular dessert. Lemon baskets stood higher than the cruets, supported by figures like the two wrestling putti seen here were designed to attract the eye to the fruit piled within the basket or ‘shell.’ Lemons were a luxury in the eighteenth century and were meant to impress the diners. Imported from the Mediterranean countries or grown further north in conservatories and greenhouses, they were an important culinary item and flavoring for fish, meat and salads then as they are today.; The ‘plat de ménage’ gave Meissen modelers great scope for creating impressive centerpieces for major table services, but this lemon basket belongs to a less imposing model that was, nevertheless, in regular production through several versions in or even before 1735, and which continued into the early twentieth century with many variations. In August of 1735 Johann Joachim Kaendler recorded renewing and making higher a lemon ‘shell’ with two children standing on a rock (Die Arbeitsberichte des Meissener Porzellanmodelleurs Johann Joachim Kaendler 1706-1775, 2002, p.33).; This lemon basket has a quatrefoil shape with a band of relief-molded scrolls and strapwork on its exterior. The interior has East Asian flora painted in onglaze enamel with a bird perched on a stem. The coat of arms may belong to minor gentry or an entrepreneurial family with the name of Hopfner or Höpfner indicated by the entwined vines suggestive of hops.; Not many Meissen pieces from a table service with this pattern exist: a sugar box can be seen online at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, # C92&A-1929; see also Weber, J., 2013, Meissener Pozellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern: Stiftung Ernst Schneider in Schloss Lustheim, p. 465.; On the ‘plat de ménage’ see Katherina Hantschmann, “The ‘Plat de Ménage’: The Centrepiece on the Banqueting Table” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 106-119; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 288-289.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: c.1737-1740; 19th century; 1737-1740; 91737-1740

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.63.263
catalog number: 63.263
accession number: 250446
collector/donor number: 53

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen milk pot

Description: TITLE: Meissen milk pot and cover; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 6⅛" 15.6cm; OBJECT NAME: Milk pot; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1750-1760; SUBJECT:; Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 67.1043.a,b; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1180; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “63” impressed.; PURCHASED FROM: The Art Exchange, New York, 1961.; This milk pot is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; The pear-shaped milk pot has a scene of a leopard attacking a horse ridden by a man in oriental apparel. A cub lies to the right foreground of the scene and the body of a man lies on the left. Scenes of animals fighting one another are on the reverse side. On the cover we can see a stag and a hunting dog. Painted for the most part in overglaze purple enamel there are a few accents in other colors with gold decoration on the handle, spout, and rim.; Animal subjects, especially hunting scenes, were specialist genres for many artists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Since the sixteenth century European infiltration into distant continents brought awareness of animal species that fed the desire to collect wild creatures, alive or dead, for the menageries and cabinets of curiosities of the educated and ruling elites. In Dresden, court entertainment included the bloody spectacle of watching wild animals fight until death, not at all unlike the spectacles of the ancient Roman world. Artists like Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) began to focus on the drama of animal and human encounters in which viewers could engage with the psychological pressure of danger through imagination. The images on this milk jug represent the struggle between predatory animals, a lion and a leopard on the reverse and an imminent struggle between the man on horseback and the leopard that perhaps killed a man in an attempt to protect her cub.; To present day sensibilities the grisly subjects represented here may seem out of place on a tea and coffee service associated with polite social rituals, but eighteenth-century sensibilities and interests were different in many respects from those of today. People of all classes took a full-bloodied interest in violent events, from the military battle to the public execution, and vicarious engagement took place through the visual arts, storytelling, popular theater and street spectacles. For the intellectually curious animals were objects of study in attempts to understand better the nature of human beings in relation to the wild.; The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes, figures, and animals were paid more than those who painted flowers, fruits and underglaze blue patterns. Most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage or salary. Ornamental gold painting was the responsibility of another specialist worker.; On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meissener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136.; On animal imagery see Silver, L., "World of Wonder: Exotic Animals in European Imagery, 1515-1650", in Cuneo, P. F. (ed.), 2014, Animals and Early Modern Identity, pp.291-327.; Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 316-317.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1750-1760; 1750-1760

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.67.1043ab
catalog number: 67.1043ab
collector/donor number: 1180
accession number: 276588

Data Source: National Museum of American History

Meissen vinegar pot

Description: TITLE: Meissen vinegar pot for a plat de ménage; MAKER: Meissen Manufactory; PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material); MEASUREMENTS: H. 6⅞" 17.5cm; OBJECT NAME: Vinegar pot; PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany; DATE MADE: 1735; SUBJECT: Art; Domestic Furnishing; Industry and Manufacturing; CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection; ID NUMBER: 71.201 a,b; COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 744 a,b; ACCESSION NUMBER:; (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center); MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue.; PURCHASED FROM: S. Berges, New York, 1947.; This vinegar pot is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.; The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in the German States, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.; This vinegar pot was part of a plat de ménage that served as a centerpiece on the dining or banqueting table, also known as an ‘Epargne’ from the French épargner’ meaning to serve and often made in silver or silver gilt. The plat de ménage held cruet sets containing various condiments like oil and vinegar, mustard, salt, spices, and sugar for guests to season their food during service in the French style of three main savory courses before the often spectacular dessert. The vinegar pot’s partner was the oil pot, and the Meissen modelers designed the vinegar pot with a grimacing mask at the base of the spout as can be seen here, whereas the oil pot sometimes has a mask that smiles affably. The two containers were used for dressing salads and vegetables in much the same way as some people choose to do today. The largest vessel on a plat de ménage was the lemon basket and in later models centerpieces were exploited by the Meissen modelers for their sculptural potential by introducing figures and elaborate ornamentation.; The vinegar pot has a double scroll handle and the long thin spout allows for better control in pouring the liquid onto the food. The cover has a finial in the shape of an artichoke. A band of egg and dart raised molding separates flying phoenixes in the upper section of the pot (Ho-ho birds in Japanese mythology with different aspects to the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern phoenix). In the lower band are rice bundle straw fences and flowering tree peonies. Apart from the enamel painted pattern the oil pot is a product of the European baroque style and no such vessel existed in China or Japan unless copied for export after European models. This pot and the oil pot similar to it except for the painted subjects (ID# 71.202 a,b) derive their shape and ornament from contemporary European silver vessels for a plat de ménage.; On the ‘plat de ménage’ see Hantschmann, K., “The ‘plat de ménage’: The Centrepiece on the Banqueting Table”, in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 106-119.; For a sugar caster with a similar onglaze enamel pattern see Pietsch, U., 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: the Wark Collection from the Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, p.282; see also Weber, J., 2013, Meissener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern: Stiftung Ernst Schneider in Schloss Lustheim, Band II, p.229. Johann Joachim Kaendler’s work book records two occasions when he modeled oil and vinegar pots, in June 1733 and January 1734, but it is not clear to which version this pot belongs, see Die Arbeitsberichte des Meissener Porzellanmodelleurs Johann Joachim Kaendler 1706-1775, 2002 , pp.19-20, p. 22.; Jefferson Miller II, J., Rückert, R., Syz, H., 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 158-159.
Location: Currently not on view

date made: ca 1730-1735; 1730-1735

maker: Meissen Manufactory

ID Number: CE.71.201ab
catalog number: 71.201ab
collector/donor number: 744ab
accession number: 297499

Data Source: National Museum of American History

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