by Christopher Proudlove©

This feature is devoted to the breathtakingly beautiful, always valuable … and sometimes quite saucy products of Royal Saxon Porcelain Factory. There, that’s fooled you already. For those who have never heard of the Royal Saxon Porcelain Manufactory, read the German Meissen factory – one of the few firms to remain in continuous production from its beginnings in 1710 until the present day.

Every serious porcelain collector knows the early history of the company. For nigh on 1,000 years, the only people who knew the secret of how to produce hard paste porcelain were the Chinese.

Augustus the Great, the Elector of Saxony, was a great fan of the Chinese pots and he spent a fortune on purchasing a collection of more than 20,000 pieces which filled his palaces and storerooms. Indeed, Augustus spent so much money on his passion for fine porcelain that China became known as “the bleeding bowl of Saxony”.

He is even said to have swapped a regiment of dragoons for 48 Chinese porcelain vases, today still preserved among the 8,000 pieces that remain at Dresden, and known as the “Dragoon Vases”

In his quest for the means to pay for his obsession, Augustus engaged the services of a young apprentice apothecary named Johann Friedrich Boettger, who was said to have discovered a means of turning base metals into gold.

Boettger was virtually imprisoned in his laboratory, but, of course, never came up with the goods. Unwittingly, however, he did hit on a recipe that produced something very similar to Chinese hard paste porcelain.

Augustus was appeased – porcelain was worth almost as much as gold and production started in a factory in Meissen, near Dresden in 1710. Its success was legendary. Thanks to the massive demand for its products throughout Europe, particularly in England, Meissen became the ware every rich aristocrat wanted in his home. Designs copied those from China and Japan and, later, much of the best from English makers. The business thrived and enjoyed its golden years.

Today, pieces made from 1710 to the end of the 19th century are highly sought after by collectors. Small fortunes can change hands at auction sales, often for a single cup if two collectors battle it out for ownership. I watched a recent sale in which a tiny sugar bowl and cover, made in 1730 and decorated with armorials sell for a staggering £34,500.

Even more expensive, but many times more impressive was a pair of ormolu-mounted figures of a lion and a lioness modelled by the great Meissen artist Johann Joachim Kaendler in about 1748. Each an imposing six by eight inches, they were expected to fetch £25,000-35,000. They sold for £47,700.

Kaendler was sculptor at Augustus’s court and in 1731, Augustus installed him at Meissen to reorganise the modelling department. For the next 44 years Kaendler’s artistic genius, versatility and imagination brought the factory world renown.

He was assisted by three of the most distinguished pottery sculptors of the Rococo period: J.F. Eberlein, F.E. Meyer, and P. Reinicke and scarcely a palace in Europe did not contain Meissen figurines, dinner sets, vases, or other works of the Kaendler period.

Among his best-known works are his Commedia dell’Arte figurines, largely done between 1738 and 1740; his birds for the Japanese Palace in Dresden, executed between 1731 and 1735; and the 2,200-piece Swan Service made for Heinrich, Count von Brühl, from 1737 to 1741.

Finding – and affording – original Kaendler pieces is the stuff of dreams. But there is hope for collectors of lesser means.

Being one of Europe’s most successful porcelain manufactories, the company had been able to thrive by churning out copy after copy of an existing line of products to such an eager market that it never felt it necessary to produce anything new.

And then the Great War intervened. However, in 1918 a new managing director named Max Peiffer was appointed to revive the factory’s fortunes and he introduced new lines and new designers, notably Max Esser and Paul Scheurich, and output was concentrated on reviving Meissen’s artistic strength.

The Second World War, or rather the crippling lead up to it with Germany in the grip of the National Socialist League, had a further devastating affect on the factory’s fortunes. Under that regime, any artistic creativity was stymied.

Peiffer was sacked and innovation and artistic creativity went with him. The situation grew even worse after the war. Being based in Dresden, Meissen came under the rule of the East Germans and the Communist regime and was left to stagnate, pouring out the old lines that sold to the home market.

However, all this means that today’s collectors can enjoy searching out examples of the huge range of Meissen products dating from the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Figure groups like the examples illustrated here are a particularly rich area of collecting, many of which can be positively identified as being “after” works by the great modellers such as Kaendler and his colleagues.

For “after”. read copies, but that does not mean they are reproductions in any derogatory sense. Not a bit of it. They are beautifully and expertly crafted, hand-painted works of art that put the series ware produced by (whisper the names) Royal Doulton, Beswick and Coalport to shame.

Pictures show, top: One of the best known works by Kaendler depicts the grandchildren of Augustus III. These examples date from circa 1870 and are worth £500-700

Below: This trio of figure groups are the work of J.J. Kaendler, left to right “The Goose Seller”, young lovers in 18th century dress, and “Harlequin & Columbine”. The first dates from circa 1870, the other two from 1950, but I defy you to tell the difference. Each is worth £500-700

Bottom, left to right: A pair of Meissen figures of young lovers in 18th Century dress dating from about 1870. They’re worth £700-900

“The Horse Tamer”, after a model by J.J. Kaendler, the figure of a rearing white stallion supported by a blackamoor. This example was made in about 1920 and is worth £1,500-2,000

Originally modelled by F. E. Meyer in the 18th century, these figure groups date from about 1870. On the left is a hurdy-gurdy player worth £800-1,200, while that on the right depicts the saucy mythological story of “Europa and the Bull”. It shows the Phoenician beauty Europa seated on the back of the white bull with two attendants dressing the animal with floral garlands. According to Greek mythology, Zeus became smitten with Europa and in order to woo her, he turned himself into a bull to get close to her. It’s worth £700-1,000.

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The first time it happened was when a picture specialist at a leading auction house stood me in front of a Victorian narrative painting and explained the story depicted on its canvas.

I was both inspired and dumbstruck in equal measure by the specialist’s knowledge. Here was a charming enough painting of a family sitting around a cottage table, the mother reading a letter to her children and parents.

When the scene was explained by an expert, the picture took on a whole new meaning: the letter is bad news, the wife wears black and clearly the children have been orphaned by war or other mishap.

The father is an old soldier himself – there is a group of medals hanging above the fireplace, which is why he seems less distraught than his wife. And so on.

Narrative paintings has fascinated me ever since. But I thought that was the end of it. Not a bit.

I attended the International Ceramic Fair in London last month, where I met someone who has forgotten more about pottery and porcelain than I’ll never know. He explained to me the significance of the object illustrated here.

It was made by the German manufactory Meissen in 1745 and is correctly termed a chafing dish, cover and stand.

Interestingly, it came from the collection of the Dukes of Westminster and might once have stood on display in William Porden’s Eaton Hall, Chester.

My expert guide to this ceramic conundrum was Paul Crane, of London ceramics dealer Brian Haughton. Mr Crane had spent months cracking the various codes displayed on the piece – so simple to spot so long as you have eyes to see them.

The first thing that strikes the viewer is the armorials painted on the piece. They are those of Frederick-Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, King Augustus III of Poland and his wife Queen Maria-Josepha.

The second thing is the obvious domestic nature of the object. Why would such an dish, more usually found in kitchen or on a dining table, be so profusely decorated?

Simple, Research has proved that the dish, commissioned personally from Meissen by the Queen, was intended as her gift to her husband to mark their 25th – or silver – wedding anniversary.

The fact that its design was based on something more often found in silver eludes, therefore, to a strong and successful marriage which had enjoyed 25 years of domestic bliss and harmony.

This then is an important piece of Meissen, not only as an emblem of unchanging love in a royal marriage, but also a tour de force of ceramic art.

Meissen’s chief modeller J.J.Kaendler (1706-1775) and his decorators were commissioned personally by the queen and between them, they produced a ceramic tour de force.

At the beginning of the 18th century, Europe was gripped by a fascination with the secret Turkish language of flowers, introduced to England by Lady Mary Wortley Montague, the wife of the ambassador from the Court of St. James to Constantinople.

Flowers had long been the sign of romance but adopting the secret language meant lovers were then able to send messages to each other and proclaim their love using specific flowers.

In simple terms, this might just mean sending a posy carefully chosen for the moment. More complex was to appear in a portrait holding certain flowers or by commissioning special objects illustrating their private thoughts.

So it is with the chafing dish. On the cover of the dish alongside the arms of the Elector and his wife appear the heartsease or wild pansy which show the twin faces of togetherness and thoughtfulness.

The iron red genista or broom on the right means a union which would refer to the happy couple, while the panel showing a stag hunt, a pursuit reserved for royal rank is linked to Venus and symbolic of love and fertility.

In this scene the stag has been chased and caught, alluding to a chase which culminates in the personal union of two lovers and the triumph of love

Other scenes are filled with vignettes of court life, each showing a courtly man kissing of the hand of a lady.

The flowers immediately flanking the armorial on the dish itself are the auricula and the pink carnation placed together with the speedwell.

Auriculas symbolise a union of primal or first love, presumably an allusion to the often prearranged marriages of the time. The pink carnation translates as woman’s love and the speedwell represents fidelity or truth.

Finally the single white bell of the campanula flower appears to the right of the auriculas, meaning gratitude and constancy.

The side of the chafing dish shows a view of courtiers walking in pairs in various parts of a formal garden, complete with a tunnel of love.

Historically such pleasure gardens found in many European countries at the time were a place of royal and aristocratic intrigue where courtiers expressed some of their most intimate desires.

The stand to the dish itself provides the most dramatic symbols of an obviously strong union between a husband and wife.

The central armorial is surrounded by further symbols of the heart’s desire: below it and to the right is an open purple cabbage rose, the ambassador of all love, beside a spray of speedwell representing the strongest symbol of true love.

To the left, the pink tinged dianthus not only denotes faithful love but also alludes to a belief in Christ as Saviour and is therefore a symbol of deep religious significance.

This alludes to the God given right to rule and the divine significance of the couple’s place in society.

Another scene supports the allusion. It shows a falconry hunt in progress, traditionally associated with royalty and regarded as the sport of kings.

There was a clear hierarchical use of birds of prey at this time that had its roots in the Middle Ages.

Rank decreed that a vulture or a merlin could be used in a hunt only by an emperor, while a king was entitled to a gyrfalcon, a peregrine falcon was used by a prince or a duke, a goshawk by a yeoman and a kestrel for a knave (to coin a phrase).
Finally, another panel shows a harbour and lighthouse, dominated on the right by a huge equestrian statue showing a rearing white horse.

Apparently, the king intended to install a statue of this design and was developed at Meissen by J.J.Kaendler. The idea never got beyond a terracotta model but by including the design in the chafing dish infers that the queen was complimenting the king on his grandiose scheme.

Mr Crane declined to reveal its price, but said it was in six figures. In May, Christie’s New York sold a Vincennes porcelain table fountain that had belonged to Louis XV’s mistress Madame de Pompadour. It fetched $1.8 million. That’s a little over £1 million.

The Meissen factory was established in 1710 near Dresden. Until then, only the Chinese were capable of making true porcelain but in 1707, an apprentice pharmacist called Johann Friedrich Bottger managed to make a fine red stoneware.
Bottger also claimed to be able to make gold from base metal and the then Elector of Saxony, Augustus the Strong, had Bottger imprisoned, to be released only when he had proved his claim.
Bottger worked for years but naturally failed. However, he accidentally hit on the process of making porcelain, which was at least as good – particularly to Augustus, who was an avid collector of Chinese porcelain.
Meissen’s most famous designers were Johann Gregor Horoldt (1720-55), who produced the renowned blue onion pattern, and Johann Joachim Kandler (1706-75) who created figurines, giant animals, and elegant table services.
Still in production today, collectors should look for the famous crossed swords trademark which was used on all products from 1723.

Pictures show, top: The highly important royal armorial presentation chafing dish and stand made at Meissen in 1745. The dish was commissioned personally by Queen Maria-Josepha to give to her husband Frederick-Augustus II, Elector of Saxony, King Augustus III of Poland to mark their 25th wedding anniversary

Below: The cover or lid of the dish. It has a gold coloured artichoke finial and the royal arms are flanked by heartsease, a sprig of iron red flowering sweet pea and speedwell and three pained panels of landscapes

Bottom, three of the painted views, left to right The pleasure gardens of a huge royal palace with courtiers walking in pairs and a with a tunnel of love in the background. A stag hunt pictured at the moment of capitulation as a white deerhound pulls down a running stag (he yellow coat of the huntsman indicates that it is a royal hunt). A view of a harbour with a huge equestrian statue of a rearing white horse that dominates the right side of the scene. The statue was never built