Moritz Zdekauer

Is a porcelain producer based in the Czech town of Stara Role.

The factory was established in 1810 by Benedict Hasslacher, on the left bank of the river Rolava. The factory was bought by Augustin Nowotny, a Prague businessman in 1824, who relocated the factory to the right bank of the river and extended it. The factory grew rapidly and he employed around a hundred workers. The earthenware products were sold from warehouses in Prague, Vienna and Pest.

The factory in Stará Role near Karlovy Vary was founded 1810 by Benedict Haßlacher who purchased land on the left bank of the Rolava river to build a mass mill, two buildings and one round furnace and to establish a pottery manufacture there. In 1824 the factory was purchased by the Prague businessman Augustin Nowotný, who relocated the plant on the right bank of the Rolava river and extended the manufacture. He soon employed 100 workers and sold his produce from warehouses in Prague, Vienna and Pest.

Porcelain production started in 1836 and production boomed resulting in the factory employing around 800 people by 1870.

Unfortunately the factory ran into difficulties in the 1880s and was bought at auction by the Moritz Zdekauer Bank in Prague. Under the new ownership, the export trade was developed with products being sold to North and South America, Holland and in the Dutch colonies. They were taken over by a German porcelain manufacturer (C. M. Hutschenreuter) in 1909, who, recognising the value of the now established brand, maintained the crowned eagle with the initials ‘MZ’ marking maintaining continuity.

The factory kept going after the Second World War as a nationalised concern and was incorporated into Carlsbad Porcelain in 1958.

The company (Starorolský porcelán Moritz Zdekauer, a. s.,) was privatised in 1992 and continued to produce porcelain under the crowned eagle and MZ mark. Due to the global financial crisis, it was wound up in 2013 but the manufacturing continued under the auspices of Bohemia porcelán Moritz Zdekauer 1810 s.r.o, who purchased the trademark and assets of the old company. Porcelain continues to be produced using the crowned eagle with stretched wings and initialis ‘MZ’.