Meissen Porcelain
Meissen porcelain or Meissen china was the first hard-paste porcelain to be produced in Europe. Chinese porcelain was made from hard-paste but the recipe and firing method had eluded Europeans for centuries. It was finally ‘developed’ by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus in 1708 and production started at Meissen near Dresden in 1710 with wares being put on the market in 1713 under Johann Friedrich Böttger . The new potteries attracted artists and artisans and rapidly became one of the most famous porcelain manufacturers. It is still producing today.
Chinese porcelain was highly prized in Europe, representing refined taste, wealth and importance to the upper classes and so fetched high prices. With this in mind, Meissen were keen to hang on to the ‘secret’ and for a few years maintained a monopoly on hard-paste porcelain production in Europe. However, in 1717 a competing manufacturer was set up in Vienna as the secret of ‘china clay’ (kaolin) came out.
Dominating the style of European porcelain until 1756, their crossed swords trademark , based on the arms of the Elector of Saxony, was introduced in 1720 to protect their wares, and is one of the oldest trademarks in existence.
In 1720 Johann Gregorius Höroldt was made the Director and he introduced the brilliant enamel colours which were to make Meissen famous. At first the painting imitated Chinese patterns, but soon minutely detailed landscape and port scenes, galante courtly scenes, flowers, animals and fanciful Chinese-inspired decoration were produced.
Johann Jakob Kirchner was the first sculptor appointed to the factory and he made figurines and statues. His assistant Johann Joachim Kaendler took over as chief ‘modelmaster’ in 1733 and became the most famous Meissen sculptor producing exquisite figurines often showing scenes of gallantry. His large-scale animal menagerie are thought to demonstrate one of the high points of European porcelain production.
The first dinner services were produced in the 1720s and at first twere plain, but Kaendler introduced matching decorations. In 1754 he went on to produce the ‘New Cutout’ pattern featuring a wavy edge cut. Other popular patterns are ‘Vine-Leaf’, ‘Purple Rose’, ‘Red Dragon’, ‘Blue Onion’ and ‘Court Dragon’.
Originally owned by the King of Saxony, the Meissen works were ‘nationalised’ in 1830 to belong to the State of Saxony. After the Second World War most their equipment was used as war reparations and sent to the Soviet Union. In 1990, after German reunification, the company was restored to the State of Saxony.
Meissen is world renowned as being of superlative quality and artistic value and so is thought very desirable by collectors and connoisseurs, despite being very expensive.