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The great success of Meissen encouraged other European rulers to set up their own factories in the 1740s and 1750s. By the 1770s there were almost 20 factories in Europe producing hard-paste porcelain, often imitating the wares first produced at Meissen. The most significant are discussed below, although there were also several less important factories in the Saxon province of Thuringia producing high-quality wares on a much smaller basis, including those at Gotha (1756-1834), Kloster-Veilsdorf (est. 1760), Wallendorf (est. 1764), and Limbach (est. 1772).
HOCHSTIn
1746 the Elector of Mainz granted a privilege to Adam Friedrich von Lowenfink (1714-54) to establish a faience factory in Hochst, near Mainz. The factory manufactured porcelain only after the arrival of the arcanist Josef Jakob Ringlet ( 1730-1804) in 1750. Hochst became well known for its porcelain figures modelled by several notable craftsmen, such as Simon Feilner (1726-98), who modelled a dramatic set of commedia dell’arte figures and a few elaborate Rococo figures, Johann Friedrich Luck ( 1727-97), his brother Karl Gottlob Luck (c.1730-75), and Johann Peter Melchior (1742-1825), who became master modeller in 1767. Although Melchior’s figures often have a stiff or stylized appearance, there is much careful detailing in such features as the folds of clothes. One of the most characteristic elements of Melchior’s figures is the mound base, with either grass and earth, or rockwork detailed in green and brown.
The range of wares included trembleuse cups and saucers with plain surfaces and small modelled details such as animal or scrollwork spouts and wishbone handles. Wares were painted with landscape vignettes With figures, most frequently peasants or rustic scenes in the style of Dutch paintings, surrounded by small, scattered flowers. Polychrome decoration was common, but a distinctive palette of puce or green monochrome was also used.
The factory’s financial situation was always precarious, and it closed in 1796. The moulds of the Melchior models were sold to the Damm Pottery (est. 1827) in Aschaffenburg, where the designs were reproduced in faience from c.1830, although most existing pieces date from the mid-19th century. These arc often very similar to the porcelain originals and are highly collectable in their own right.
FRANKENTHAL
From 1752 Paul Antoine Hannong (1700-60) manufactured porcelain at his father’s faience factory (est. 1721) in Strasbourg with the help of Ringlet, who had previously worked at Hochst. In 1754 Louis XV banned the production of porcelain at Strasbourg in order to protect Vincennes from competition, and Hannong moved the factory to Frankenthal near Mannheim in the German Palatinate; production of hard-paste porcelain started the following year.
Frankenthal is noted for its figures, of which 800 different subjects have been identified. Among the finest are pastoral couples beneath elaborate Rococo arbours characterized by rather stiff modelling. The first modeller, Johann Wilhelm Lanz (active 1755-61), introduced scrolled Rococo bases. In 1762 Karl Theodor, the Elector Palatine, bought the factory and appointed Konrad Linck (1730-93) as chief modeller. Linck modified the style of the figures, enhancing the sculptural qualities of such features as drapery, and adding yellow and green grass or moss to the bases; he also introduced the first elements of Neo-classicism to the factory’s style. Johann Peter Melchior joined the factory from Hochst in 1779 and continued to make his distinctive models of children, often in biscuit porcelain.
Frankenthal produced a typical range of tableware, the forms of which were for the most part fairly simple with few sculptural details; plates, dishes, and large tea and coffee vessels often have moulded or pierced basketwork runs. Decoration of these wares was in a typical palette of strong, dark colours. The most common subject was naturalistic sprays of large flowers. loosely painted and surrounded by scattered smaller flowers. Jakob Osterspey (c.1730-82) specialized in mythological figures and musicians in idealized landscapes, after paintings by Watteau and Boucher. Also popular was trompe l`oeil decoration imitating grained wood, while in the 1770s to 1880s crimson and gold flowers over gilt-striped grounds were common.
When the Elector succeeded to the title of Elector of Bavaria in 1777 he moved to Munich, and without his support the factory went into decline. After French troops occupied the Palatinate in 1794 the factory was requisitioned, finally closing in 1799.
NYMPHENBURGIn
1753 the Elector of Bavaria established a porcelain factory in Neudeck, and in 1761 the factory was moved near to the Elector’s palace at Nymphenburg. The most outstanding products made at this factory are indisputably the figures by Franz Anton Bustelli
( 1722-63), one of the greatest exponents of the Rococo style. His forms are sty lized and gently twisting, often Slightly elongated, with simple, curvaceous forms. Many figures and groups were left unpainted or were painted with broad pastel washes. In t797 the modeller Johann Peter Melchior joined the factory from Frankenthal and produced Neo-classical biscuit figures. Tablewares include teapots that often have characteristic double-scroll handles and long spouts in the form of a swan’s head. The most popular type of decoration during the Rococo period was loose bouquets of flowers. Landscapes were either left untrained, half enclosed by rocaille frames, or framed by gilt cartouches.
LUDWIGSBURG
This factory was established by the Duke of Wurtemberg in 1758-9. The poor quality of the Ludwigsburg paste compared with some other German factories meant that it was more suitable for figures than for plain or sparsely decorated tableware. Under the direction of Gottlieb Friedrich Riedel the factory produced a variety of figures that appear rather stiff and very simplified, especially when compared with some of the more sophisticated work of such factories as Nymphenburg. The decoration is restrained, and the painting, most often in pastel colours, is precise. A series of miniatures made in the 1760s is among the most celebrated of the Ludwigsburg figures; representing market traders as well as courtiers, the figures were intended to form a miniature scene of an annual fair in Ludwigsburg. Teapots are generally bullet-shaped, often with fruit knops and bird’s-head spouts. Saucers are flared, as opposed to the rounded shape made elsewhere in Germany. Plates, dishes, tureens, and bowls typically feature a band of moulded and sectioned basketwork around the rims. Typical painted decoration includes unframed landscapes and scattered flowers. When the court moved to Stuttgart in the 1770x, the factory went into decline, arid it finally closed in 1824.
Hochst (1746-96)
• BODY hard-paste porcelain; opaque creamy white; generally flawless
• DECORATION landscape Vii usually of peasants Or rustic scenes in the manner of David Terriers (1610-90) with large figures; chinoiserie figures; naturalistic flower sprays
• tenses mound bases with grass and earth, or rockwork detailed in bright green and brown
Marks
Underglaze blue mark used from c.1750
Frankenthal (1755-99)
• Bony hard-paste porcelain; creamy off-white with a thin glaze but can tend toward greyish off-white, with tiny black specks of ash, or opaque white
• STYLE simple forms, plates, dishes, and large tea and Coffee vessels, often with moulded and sectioned or
pierced basketwork rims
• PALEI Fr. rich green, grey, carmine, brown, puce
• DI CORA I ION naturalistic flower sprays in style of Strasbourg; chinoiserie scenes with large figures; large birds in wooded landscapes
• FIGURES stiff modelling of a variable (often high)
quality; pastoral couples; some in biscuit porcelain
• BASES elaborate, with undulating and arched Rococo scrollwork, and often tufts of green moss
Marks
Underglaze blue Mark used during the period when Elector Karl Theodor owned the factory (1761-93)
Nymphenburg (est. 1753)BODY
• hard-paste porcelain; slightly creamy off-white,a dense with a wet-looking glaze, with greenish tone where it collects in hollows and corners
• STYLE characteristic double-scroll handle; simple “U”-shape for coffee-CLIPS and sugar-bowls
• PALETTE ochre, puce, mushroom-pink, brown, red
• DECORATION very skilful naturalistic flower-painting; landscapes with Classical ruins, statues, and small figures; large single figures
• FIGURES stylized, slightly elongated and curvaceous forms; later, stiffer Louis XVI-sty le figures; coloured deep pink and orange/tomato red in flat washes
• Bases on Bustelli figures these appear integral to the figure – flat, edged with asymmetrical scrollwork; also stepped pedestals
Marks
Impressed on wares made during the “Bustelli” period ( 1754-65)
Ludwigsburg (1727-1824)
• BODY hard-paste porcelain; greyish white and close-grained with distinctive smoky glaze, tends to be green where pooled
• FORMS bullet-shaped teapots; saucers with flared rims; Spouts in the form of birds or dragons, “C”-shaped scroll handles with shell or feather thumb-pieces
• PALETTE russet, puce, dark brown, green, yellow
• DECORATION naturalistic flower sprays; realistic figures after Watteau; fruit and flowers in Meissen style; landscapes with two or three tufts of foliage at the base
• FIGURES stiff with crisp modelling; coloured greyish puce, cobalt, yellow
• BASES grass and rockwork mounds or slabs, Rococo
FORSTENBERG
Charles I, Duke of Brunswick, established a factory at Furstenberg in 1747, but attempts to manufacture porcelain were unsuccessful until the arrival of Johann Kilian Benckgraff (1708-58) from Hochst in 1753. The factory encountered many technical problems, and early wares and figures often have flaws, such as black specks of ash in the body, or are slightly misshapen or cracked.
Many of the figures produced at Furstenberg imitated those produced at Meissen, Hochst, and Berlin. The most important modeller was Simon Feilner (1726-98) from Hochst, who became chief modeller in 1754; his work included a fine series of miners (1757-8) and, most notably, characters from the commedia dell’arte (C.1754). During the Neo-classical period the factory made Classical figures, including a series of biscuit busts of Classical poets and philosophers on pedestals. Copies of figures from 18th-century moulds were made in the 19th century, but can be distinguished from the originals by the clumsier decoration and harsher colours.
Early Fiirstenberg tablewares are particularly distinctive as they are often decorated with elaborate moulded Rococo scrollwork to disguise the flaws in the paste. Early decoration included flower sprays, sometimes in a green monochrome that indicates the influence of the Hochst craftsmen working at Fiirstenberg. Landscapes with buildings were generally left unframed and were painted in predominantly dark greens and browns. One of the factory’s most easily identifiable decorative themes is finely detailed poultry and other domestic birds perched on fences or branches.
BERLIN
The first porcelain factory at Berlin was founded by Wilhelm Kaspar Wegely in 1752. Some figures were copied directly from Meissen or from prints, and a series of small putti with large heads and limbs, dressed as members of various trades and professions, was also made. Tablewares and vases were painted in the style of Meissen, with naturalistic flowers, landscapes, and figures in the
manner of the French pastoral painter Antoine Watteau. Moulded flowers and foliage, and basketwork rims, were specialities of Wegely, and a range of moulded baskets was also made. The factory closed in 1757 because of financial problems during the Seven Years War.
In 1761 the merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky set up another factory with craftsmen who had worked at Wegely’s factory, but it went bankrupt and was bought in 1763 63 by Frederick the Great. The new factory, which was known as the Royal Porcelain Factory, produced
wares in a distinctive late Rococo style. Tablewares were embellished with trelliswork, pierced rims, and flowers entwined in basketwork patterns. Painted decoration included scale-ground borders and naturalistic flowers, animals, and birds. The modeller Wilhelm Christoph Meyer (1723-85) produced the series “Cries of Berlin” as well as allegorical and Classical figures characterized by elongated forms and small heads. They are set on small, square bases and painted in salmon pink, puce, and black. Neo-classical wares introduced in the 1770s include vases and cylindrical cups. The decoration was sumptuous, with gilded Neo-classical motifs, views of Berlin, and monochrome portrait medallions. During the 1780s figures set on high pedestal or rocky bases imitated Neo-classical sculpture.
Furstenberg (1753-c.1800)
• BODY hard-paste porcelain; generally whitish with a glassy glaze, early paste often had flaws
• STYLE “C”-scroll handles; early pieces sometimes have moulded scrollwork or frames
• PALETTE dominated by greens and browns; also monochrome green or purple; figures often left white
• DECORATION unframed landscapes; birds or fowl; portrait medallions
• FIGURES Feilner’s miners were both painted and unpainted; Neo-classical biscuit figures are typical; skin is often highly coloured
• BASES simple mound or pad
Marks
Underglaze-blue mark used during the early period of production
Berlin: Wegely factory (1752-7)
• BODY creamy white, similar to Meissen but with a thinner glaze lending an opaque look
• GLAZE very glassy, similar to Meissen
• PALETTE white or painted in puce, iron red, or black
• DECORATION moulded flowers, trailing foliage, and basket rims; naturalistic flower-painting

Pembroke and sofa tables
The elegant dropleaf table known as the Pembroke table, so called, according to Thomas Sheraton (1751-1806) in his pattern-book The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), “from the name of the lady who first gave orders for one of them”, was part of the evolution of the breakfast table. The Pembroke table was eventually replaced in the fashionable drawing-room by the sofa table, an extended version of the type, v developed in the last years of the 18th and the first decade of the 19th century.
Pembroke table
This English mahogany serpentine Pembroke table is an elegant example of its type. It has square-tapered legs, brass feet, and casters, which are all typical features of Pembroke tables of this period.
PEMBROKE TABLES
Recorded in accounts from the 1750s, Pembroke tables were placed in the drawing-room and the boudoir where they were used for taking meals, playing cards, writing, and needlework. By the 1770s this elegant, useful form was well established, and was often a vehicle for the finest cabinet-making of the Neo-classical period. The basic structure, with its two side flaps supported on hinged brackets, lent itself to almost limitless variations. The opened table may form a rectangle or a square, an oval or an octagon; it can be straight or bow-fronted, with rounded, serpentine, or D-shaped flaps; the wood can be plain or crossbanded, with marquetry, painting, or carved decoration; and the legs may be of cabriole or straight-tapered shape, of round or square section.
A drawer in the frieze is usual, but some examples have sliding sections concealing compartments, while the rare “harlequin” type includes a mechanism to raise and lower compartments of drawers and pigeon holes within the centre. Most 18th-century Pembroke tables are Supported on their four legs without understretchers, while others have decorated base supports or small platforms. Appropriately for a highly mobile piece of furniture, nearly every example is fitted with casters.
While examples are known in the Gothic and Chinese tastes of the 1760s, those produced between 1770 and 1800 reflect the Neo-classical taste at its most refined.
Veneers are of mahogany, satinwood,
or other luxurious woods; lines
are simple, proportions carefully
considered, and ornament is of the greatest delicacy. The examples illustrated by George Hepplewhite (4.1786) in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Guide (1788-94) are typical of those available to the gentry during the last quarter of the 18th century. Pembroke tables with tapering legs of attenuated cabriole form, ending in the thinnest of scroll feet, were the result of French influence toward the end of the 18th century. Some had finely chiselled gilt-brass mounts.
Decoration took the form of plain stringing or crossbanding, or marquetry borders of anthemion, husks, guilloche, or scrolling acanthus, with such
embellishments as shells, medallions, or florets. These could also he painted, although garlands, beribboned swags, or tapering trails were the most usual.
The proportions of late 18th-century Pembroke tables are crucial; the side flaps are usually (but not always) equal to half the width of the central section, and should be one-third of the table height in their fall postion. There should be a frieze drawer at one end with a dummy drawer oil the opposite end. An oval table usually also displays bow-fronted end friezes to match the curve of the top. Each flap should have one or two fly-bracket Supports, opening sideways on wooden hinges. The legs should be tapered and the tops of the legs should continue upward to form the side frame of the drawer.
Pembroke tables continued to be made in the 19th century, the most advanced design having a central column with splayed legs (called a pillar and claw), which Sheraton illustrated in The Cabinet-Maker and Upholsterer’s Drawing Book (1791-1802). A slightly later variant was the platform base. Pembroke tables of the 1820s and 1830s are of characteristically squat proportions, with turned tapered legs, and often have two frieze drawers, one above the other.
A Pembroke table
The top of this British oval Pembroke table is set with segmented satinwood veneers and decorated with marquetry The large oval paten medallion in the centre of the top is surrounded by a band of sycamore set with scrolling plants and flowerheads, with similar decoration on the outer moulded border. Its delicate construction and graceful appearance give it especially feminine associations. As with many tables of this type, this sofa table has a real and an opposing dummy drawer; the legs are decorated with pendent husks typical of late 13th-century Neo-classical ornament.
SOFA TABLES
The sofa table was as varied as the Pembroke table in the details of its design and decoration and, like its predecessor, it followed a defining form. According to Sheraton in The Cabinet Dictionary (1803), the sofa table was specifically for use “before a sofa” where “the Ladies chiefly occupy them to draw, write or read upon
Sofa tables are usually between 1.52m (5ft) and 1.83m (6ft) long, when fully extended, and 61cm (24m) wide. The flaps, supported on fly brackets, are each about one-quarter of the width of the central section. Some examples have sliding-topped compartments in the middle for games, or rising desks for writing and drawing, but the majority have one long or two short drawers on one side of the frieze, with corresponding dummy drawers on the opposite side.
The edges of sofa-table tops are always straight, and the corners of the flaps rounded, or chamfered to form “octagon corners”, but the bases are hugely varied and closely reflect the evolving design styles of the Regency period. The top may be set on end supports, with or
without stretchers across the middle, or central supports rising from a platform base. The legs are so designed that the feet can fit a little way under a sofa, allowing the table to be pulled close to the sitter. They arc nearly always on casters.
The plainest sofa tables have plank-shaped supports dividing into splayed tapered or sabre legs with brass cappings and casters. Alternatively after c.1810, rectangular plinths were set at right angles to the uprights, often with scrolls in the angles and with scrolled feet. For more luxurious sofa tables lyre-shaped end supports or patterns of decorative spindles were favoured, and while the lion monopodia that were advocated by George Smith (active c.1786-1828) in A Collection of Designs for Household Furniture and Interior Decoration (1808) were rarely executed, the lion mask often appears on the decorative brass drawer handles. “Hipped” sabre or cabriole legs were also popular; they appear often on sofa tables with central supports. All of these shapes could be embellished with reeding, lines of inlaid wood or brass, or strategically placed carved paterae or leaves. Cross-stretchers provided many, opportunities for decorative turnings. Inlaid brass decoration on the table top and frieze was sometimes matched on the legs, and/or on the fronts of the fly brackets.
The timbers used for sofa tables range from plain mahogany or more fashionable timbers such as rosewood to exotic woods including calamander; lightly coloured woods such as satinwood for veneering were now no longer in vogue in the 19th century, except for crossbandings as a foil to the dark woods now in favour; common timbers such as beech could be stained or ebonized to simulate these. By c.1815 brass inlays in the manner advocated by George Bullock (c.1777-1818) were generally used to create decorative contrasts; the most lavish examples have ormolu mounts as well as inlaid brass. A rare but significant form of surface decoration on sofa tables was black and white penwork, painted by ladies to imitate inlaid ivory decoration.
Because they have been highly desirable for a long time many sofa tables have been “improved” or even fabricated beyond acceptable levels of repair and restoration. As well as “marriages” between tops and associated bases, decoration such as crossbandings or brass inlays may have been added to tops to enhance the commercial value. Bases may have been legitimately repaired, but many sofa tables have been “made up” with the trestle supports from old (and much less expensive) cheval mirrors. These arc liable to look somewhat flimsy in proportion to the table tops. Wood grain running the length of a sofa-table top, rather than across it, may indicate a top made up from another larger piece of old furniture.
• PEMBROKE TABLES beside the genuine repairs that may be necessary in the course of time, collectors should beware of later restorations and alterations to Pembroke tables: these include substituting an oval top for a (less valuable) square or rectangular one; inserting decorative veneers or crossbandings into a plain surface to increase the value, or later painting, on a previously undecorated table – usually identifiable by the quality
• SOFA TABLES those tables that have low stretchers are generally less popular than those with higher stretchers, which allow more leg room; sometimes lower stretchers have been moved, and the scars that are left should be visible, although often these areas have been re-veneered to hide them; satinwood or rosewood tables are more desirable than mahogany, and end-support tables more sought after than those with central pedestals; the best sofa tables have cedar-lined drawers
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Meissen Porcelain of the 18th Century.
The great secret and success story of the Far East, porcelain was discovered a thousand years before the establishment of the ceramics industry in the West. Its properties were envied and widely imitated, but never matched, and its quality far outstripped that of early Western ceramic production, which was based on stoneware.
The first examples of Chinese porcelain arrived in Europe in the early 1500s and caused a near-revolution in the ceramics world, resulting in a thriving export industry from the East that had far-reaching effects on trade. Today, examples of fine-quality porcelain from both the East and the West command the highest prices, and many museums around the world have outstanding collections.
Early Meissen
Imported from the Middle Ages through trade with China, Oriental porcelain was a rare and expensive commodity in Europe. As demand for (and imports of) porcelain became greater, alchemists in the courts of Europe attempted to discover the formula to create “true”, or hard-paste, porcelain. The production of the first European hard-paste porcelain was the result of a collaboration between the alchemist Johann Friedrich Bottger (1682-1719) and the scientist Flurcriftied Walther von Tschirnhausen ( 1651-1708) at the court of Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, in Dresden.
EXPERIMENTAL WARES
Bottger had become famous for his claims that he was on the brink of producing artificial gold. His experiments in this regard failed, but his fame and talents were such that Augustus seized Bottger after he fled from Prussia to Saxony and ordered him to help in von Tschirnhausen’s porcelain experiments. The basic formula, which was discovered c.1706-7, produced a fine, brownish-red stoneware. After further experimentation in 1708, Bottger finally v produced a white hard paste, and in 1710 Augustus established Europe’s first hard-paste porcelain factory in the Albrechtsburg, a palace in Meissen.
Bottger’s stoneware was an extremely hard and finely textured material, and is sometimes described as “Jaspisporzellan” (”jasper porcelain”) because of its resemblance to hardstone. The types of ware produced included and coffee- and teapots, bowls, teacups, and teajars, often imitating Oriental porcelain. One of the first artists to be involved in the modelling of this stoneware was the court goldsmith Johann Jakob Irminger (1635-1724), and maro, stoneware pieces were based on gold and silver designs. As the material was so hard, typical decoration included polishing or faceting -techniques derived from gem-cutting - although lacquering, enamelling, and gilding were also used.
EARLY PORCELAIN
Early Meissen porcelain (”Bottgerporzellan”), first produced commercially c.17 L3, generally followed the stoneware forms, but technical developments at the factory led to a greater range of ss ares: statuettes of dwarves and saints, copies of Chinese Mane-de-Chine wares, and “pagoda” figures. The porcelain was often left white to display the precious material, but some pieces have moulded leaf or floral borders, thickly applied and clumsily drawn polychrome enamels, or gilt or silvered scrollwork borders. While all Bottger porcelain is rare, figures and enamelled pieces are particularly scarce.
During the 1720s there were rapid technical and artistic advances in the development of porcelain at Meissen, due in part to the arrival in 1720 of the colour-chemist and painter Johann Gregorius Horoldt (1696-1775). In the early v 1720s, under his leadership, a new source of clay was found from which a slightly creamy white paste was produced. This was used to make a much wider range of wares, including vases, garnitures, bottles copied from Japanese originals, and small vessels with covers, as well as tea and coffeewares.
During the 1720s Horoldt perfected the enamelling process, increasing the range of
colours. Until the early 1730s the’ factory owed its success to the skilled painters who copied or adapted Oriental porcelain decoration and eventually developed a distinctive European style of painting. In the , i rly 1720s, underglaze blue decoration was used for copying Chinese originals in the style of wares made during the reign of Emperor Kangxi (1662-1722), and polychrome enamels were employed for making exact copies of Chinese and Japanese wares, including those in the Imari and Kakicinon palettes. Horoldt also produced his own designs for vignettes and chinoiserie scenes. During the mid-1720s the first European-style landscape decoration was introduced; the scenes are typically set within heavy gilt scrollwork cartouches, often embellished with coloured enamels. The factory also introduced Kauffahrtei (”sea trade”) scenes of quaysides, although these became more common in the 1730s.
Meissen figures and services
From the early 1730s beautifully modelled and painted figures and table services were produced at the Meissen porcelain factory in Germany, establishing its reputation as the pre-eminent porcelain factory in Europe. The extensive range of figures and wares was characterized by an extraordinary virtuosity of modelling, lively expression, and sense of movement, and remains a testimony to the skill of the painters, modellers, and other artisans employed. The factory dominated the mid-18th-century style of porcelain, and Meissen wares Lind figures were imitated by craftsmen at other porcelain factories throughout Europe.
EARLY FIGURES
Small figures used to decorate the dining-tables of the wealthy were originally modelled in sugar, wax, or gum by cooks and confectioners. Demand for pieces in a more permanent material led to the production of the first porcelain figures at Meissen in 1727, when the modeller Johann Gottlieb Kirchner (1706–after 1738) was appointed the first chief modeller. Kirchner initially produced figures of saints and animals in a strong Baroque style. In the same year Frederick-Augustus 1, Elector of Saxony (known as “Augustus the Strong”),entrusted him with the task of creating 910 monumental figures of animals and birds to decorate his Japanese Palace in Dresden, specially built to accommodate his vast collection of Oriental porcelain. However, the thick body of the porcelain meant that pieces tended to crack or even completely collapse in the kiln. The most famous Meissen modeller,
Johann Joachim Kandler (1706-75), joined the factory in 1731 to assist Kirchner, but he too could not solve the technical problems. These difficulties and the high cost of producing such works encouraged Kandler to experiment with the production of small-scale figures.
LATER FIGURES
In 1733 Kandler was appointed chief modeller at Meissen, and during the 1730s and 1740s he was responsible for some of the finest individual figures and groups ever made there. Kandler’s early figures have a wonderful sense of liveliness and movement unmatched by his imitators. They are vigorously modelled, dramatic, and sculptural, and make flamboyant or theatrical gestures. Among the extraordinary range of subjects were exotic birds, figures from distant lands, couples in romantic or chivalric poses (known as “crinoline” groups), and humorous depictions of court jesters. Some of the best-known and most popular figures by Kandler are the characters such as Harlequin, Columbine, and ScaramOLIche from the connniediar dell’arte, the Italian theatre tradition. Kandler also depicted street vendors in two series called the “Cris dc Paris” and the “Cris do Londres”, some of which were inspired by prints based on the drawings of the French artists Latrine BOLIcharclon and Christophe IT act. Sonic of these figures were produced in collaboration with other highly skilled modellers who joined the factory in the mid-18th century: Johann Friedrich Eberlein (169,5-1749), Friedrich Elias Meyer (1723-85), and Peter Reinicke (1715-68).
In the mid-18th century the fashion for the Baroque style declined, to be replaced by the delicate, lighthearted Rococo style. Figures of lovers in idyllic pastoral settings, as well as allegorical and mythological figures representing the seasons, the months, and Classical gods and goddesses, were made in keeping with the new, more romantic, frivolous style. From c.1750 to 1755 the factory made smaller-scale figures, which were painted with such pastel colours as pale mauve, lemon yellow, and soft green. The simple, flower-encrusted pad or rockivork bases that had been employed during the 1730s and 1740s were abandoned in the 1750s in favour of more elaborately scrolled bases.
Africa and Asia by Meyer Allegorical figures and groups representing the seasons and the continents were particularly popular during the Rococo period In this group, Africa is represented by a black putts, wearing an elephant-shaped head-dress and seated on a lion, while Asia is depicted as a white putts, wearing a jewelled necklace - two contrasting depictions that are very much a European fantasy of the inhabitants of these two continents The highly scrolled base and somewhat elongated heads are typical features of Meyer’s work and of mid-18thcentury Meissen figures. Although Meyer’s figures are of very high quality, they are riot as collectable as those by Kandler.
TABLEWARES AND SERVICES
In addition to figures, Kandler and his team of designers and modellers created an extensive range of dinner services, tea and coffee services, centrepieces, candlesticks, ladies’ toilet sets, and other useful and decorative wares. By the 1730s Meissen porcelain had become extremely fashionable throughout Europe, and the factory received many commissions.
The commission for Meissen’s largest, most famous, and beautifully modelled service, known as the “Swan” service, came in 1736 from the factory’s director, Count Heinrich von Bruhl, who had recently married. Each plate, painted with the coat of arms of the Count and his new, wife, is exquisitely modelled in low relief with a design of swans, herons, pelicans, and rushes, while the tureens are of sumptuous curving forms incorporating an elaborate design of dolphins, mermaids, and other marine creatures. The Count’s name, which translates as “swampy meadow” or “marshy ground”, may have inspired the theme.
The exquisite and imaginative decoration that the printer and chemist Johann Gregorius Horoldt (1696-1775) had brought to early Meissen wares continued during the 1730s. From 1729 Augustus the Strong commissioned the factory painters to make
copies of his collection of Oriental porcelain, and they adapted the decoration on Japanese Kakiemon wares and Chinese famille-verse wares to create a new style of decoration known as indianisa-bic Blumen
(”Indian flowers”), so called because much Oriental porcelain was exported into Europe by the Fist India Companies. In the early 1730s, land- and cityscapes framed with heavy gilt scrollwork
or interlaced strapwork borders were a popular alternative to dower decoration, but from c.1735 battle scenes and hunting subjects inspired by the French painter Antoine Watteau were favoured. V ith the development of the Rococo style the popularity of flower decoration increased, and European flowers were used fit painted designs.
The painter Johann Gottlieb Klinger (active 1731-46) was the best-known exponent of this style. At first petals, leaves, and stems were very precisely depicted, as the painters followed botanical prints; the design was enlivened with scattered insects and butterflies. The relaxed attitude of the Rococo led to the use of more naturalistic sprays or bouquets in a style known as deutsche Blumen (”German flowers”). By the mid-1750s this style had been replaced by looser representations of scattered flowers, described as NFiretacriblumen (”mannered flowers”).
Academic and Marcolini
After the end of the Seven Years War (1756-63) there was a period of decline at the Meissen factory, due to the deprivations of the war and the loss of several important painters and modellers. Meissen’s share of the burgeoning European porcelain market was further reduced as Austria and Prussia banned Meissen imports, and Britain, France, and Russia placed high tariffs on imported Meissen pieces in order to protect domestic production. Meissen lost its place as the dominant force of innovation, originality, and quality to other factories such as those in Berlin, Vienna, and Sevres, which it often now attempted to imitate.
THE DOT/ACADEMIC PERIOD
The period 1763 to 1774 is generally known as the “Dot” period, because the mark used at this time consisted of the familiar crossed swords with a dot added between their hilts, or the “Academic” period, because much of the factory’s output lacked originality. The factory continued to manufacture figures and wares in the mid-18th-century style hat, in a poorer-quality paste, these did not match the standard of earlier pieces. There were few innovations in the design and decoration of tableware in this period, with flowers the most popular painted subject. A debased form of deutsche Blumen (”German flowers”), these bouquets can be distinguished from earlier Meis-cnn painting by the often “painterly” style, the pale palette with a predominance of pink tones, and the smaller-scale and often scattered flowers, following the style of Sevres.
Figures were often reproduced from moulds dating from the 1730s but lack the bolder, lively decoration of the originals; the palette is sometimes pale and lacklustre, and intricate, fussy patterns
often appear. The Neo-classical style, characterized by simple, geometrical forms and the use of Greek and Roman architectural ornament, was introduced to Meissen by the French sculptor Michel-Victor Acier (1736-99), appointed to work as chief modeller with Kindler. Acier produced small-scale, sentimental figure groups characterized by stiffer modelling in line with file restrained character of the Neo-classical style.
THE MARCOLINI PERIOD
In 1774 Count Camillo Marcolini (1739-1814) was appointed director of Meissen; under his leadership Neoclassicism was more wholeheartedly adopted and the quality greatly improved. Biscuit porcelain was favoured for allegorical or Classical figures, because it resembled the marble used for ancient Classical sculpture. In the I 790s the modeller Johann Carl Schonheit (1767-1805) made figures in the Sevres style after such sculptors as Etienne Falconer.
The Neo-classical taste is also reflected in the forms and decoration of the tableware. Cylindrical coffee-cups with angular handles and covers seem to have been used for display and presentation rather than for drinking. Marcolini also introduced a wider range of very fine decoration that included mythological and pastoral scenes, portraits and landscapes, and, later, portrait medallions, topographical landscapes, and details of paintings. Flower-painting also continued during this period. The bouquets were often large and dense and somewhat stiffly painted, with fewer scattered flowers than in the designs of the 1760s.

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