Meissen Porcelain

The Meissen Company history and the characters involved.

Meissen was founded in 1710 in the gothic Albrechtburg castle. It was the first porcelain manufacturer in Europe.

Originally situated in Dresden, in 1710 the factory was moved to the Albrechtsburg in Meissen, where it was more secure and easier to guard the secret of hard paste porcelain. Initial production was, for the most part, red Böttger stoneware and some of it was marked with incised Chinese characters. It wasn't until 1713 that true porcelain began to take the place of this stoneware.

In 1719, after the death of Böttger, Höroldt took charge of the factory. He was brought to Meissen from Vienna by Samuel Stölzel and created a rich palette of enamel colours to be used in decoration. Höroldts work is known as the chinoiseries, and included typical scenes from the orient.

In 1732 around 92 people worked for meissen, among them the famous modellers J.G. Kirchner and J.J. Kändler.

On the 7th of April 1723 the Leipziger Post Zeitungen announced that the meissen wares would carry a mark to guard against forgeries. Forgeries had started appearing and were mostly minor damaged pieces, rejected by meissen, but decorated by home painters. Initially, the mark took the form of the letters KPM (Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur) in underglaze blue.

From 1756-1773 meissen porcelain was marked with the crossed swords with a dot in between the crosspieces and the period was known as the dot-period. This period marked the transition towards the neo-classical style.

When Höroldt and Kändler retired, Michel Victor Acier was appointed as master modeller. During Acier's production period, mythological figures dominated.

The dot-period was followed by the Marcolini-period, named after Count Camillo Marcolini who became director of the company in 1774 and he held this position until 1814. The Meissen production from this period was marked in undeglaze blue with crossed swords and an asterix in between the cross-pieces. The Marcolini period ended in a crisis for the factory and its debts were enormously high.

During the next ten years attempts were made to improve the business: technical innovations were introduced and wares were made in the popular taste ot the time and from that point things started to improve.

In 1830 the name of the factory was changed from Königliche Manufaktur to Staatliche Porzellan Manufaktur.

The Meissen factory is still operational and is producing the worlds' most expensive porcelain.