Meissen tea bowl and saucer (Hausmaler)
date: label: date made
content: 1715-1720
name: label: maker
content: Meissen Manufactory
notes: label: Description
content: TITLE: Meissen tea bowl and saucer (Hausmaler)
label: Description
content: MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
label: Description
content: PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain, hard paste (overall material)
label: Description
content: MEASUREMENTS: Bowl: 115/16" 4.9 cm
label: Description
content: Saucer: 5" 12.8 cm
label: Description
content: OBJECT NAME: Tea bowl and saucer
label: Description
content: PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
label: Description
content: DATE MADE: 1715-1720 Meissen
label: Description
content: SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
label: Description
content: Art
label: Description
content: Domestic Furnishing
label: Description
content: Industry and Manufacturing
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content: CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
label: Description
content: ID NUMBER: 1992. 0427. 22 a,b
label: Description
content: COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 671 a,b
label: Description
content: ACCESSION NUMBER:
label: Description
content: (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
label: Description
content: MARKS: None
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content: PURCHASED FROM: Hans E. Backer, London, England, 1947.
label: Description
content: This tea bowl and saucer is from the Smithsonian’s Hans Syz Collection of Meissen Porcelain. Dr. Syz (1894-1991) began his collection in the early years of World War II, when he purchased eighteenth-century Meissen table wares from the Art Exchange run by the New York dealer Adolf Beckhardt (1889-1962). Dr. Syz, a Swiss immigrant to the United States, collected Meissen porcelain while engaged in a professional career in psychiatry and the research of human behavior. He believed that cultural artifacts have an important role to play in enhancing our awareness and understanding of human creativity and its communication among peoples. His collection grew to represent this conviction.
label: Description
content: The invention of Meissen porcelain, declared over three hundred years ago early in 1709, was a collective achievement that represents an early modern precursor to industrial chemistry and materials science. The porcelains we see in our museum collections, made in the small town of Meissen in Germany, were the result of an intense period of empirical research. Generally associated with artistic achievement of a high order, Meissen porcelain was also a technological achievement in the development of inorganic, non-metallic materials.
label: Description
content: The tea bowl and saucer were made in the Meissen Manufactory but painted outside by an independent artist. Hausmalerei is a German word that means in literal translation ‘home painting’, and it refers to the practice of painting enamels and gold onto the surface of blank ceramics and glass in workshops outside the manufactory of origin. Beginning in the seventeenth century the work of the Hausmaler varied in quality from the outstanding workshops of Nuremberg, Augsburg, and Breslau (now Wroclaw in Poland), to the less skilled efforts of amateur artists. Early Meissen porcelain was sought after for this purpose, and wealthy patrons of local enameling and gilding workshops purchased undecorated porcelain, often of out-moded or inferior quality, which was then enameled with subjects of their choice. Hausmalerei was at first acceptable to the early porcelain manufactories like Meissen and Vienna, and Meissen sent blank porcelain to Augsburg workshops for decoration, but as the market became more competitive they tried to eradicate the practice. It was a temptation for Meissen porcelain painters to take on extra work as Hausmaler to augment their low pay, and the manufactory cautioned or even imprisoned them if Hausmalerei activity was suspected or discovered.
label: Description
content: The fierce fighting depicted on the exterior of the tea bowl and the interior of the saucer is based on prints that represent Europeans in one of many battles against Ottoman forces, a conflict that culminated in the Battle of Vienna fought on 12 September 1683 following a two month siege of the city. Publishers produced fine print collections to commemorate events of military and political importance, and collectors bought editions for their libraries. Wealthy patrons commissioned independent local enamellers to decorate a blank set of porcelain or glass bought from a manufacturer, but based on sources held in their own print collections.
label: Description
content: The Hausmaler decoration may have been executed in Vienna. The scene on the saucer is after a print by G.C. Bodenehr after a work by Georg Philip Rugendas, published by Jeremiah Wolff of Augsburg. The interior of the bowl is painted with emblems of war. The enamel painted scenes show no sign of use, indicating that the cup and saucer were placed on display in a cabinet.
label: Description
content: On Hausmaler see Ulrich Pietsch, 2011, Early Meissen Porcelain: The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art and Gardens, pp. 43-46.
label: Description
content: For the print source for the painting on the saucer see de Blaauwen A. L., 2000, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, pp.184-186.
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content: See also Clifton, J., Scarone, L. M., Fetraci, E., 2009, The Plains of Mars: European War Prints, 1500-1825.
label: Description
content: Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 562-563.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Saxony, Meissen
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
label: See more items in
content: The Hans C. Syz Collection
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content: Meissen Porcelain: The Hans Syz Collection
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content: Art
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content: Domestic Furnishings
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1992.0427.22ab
label: catalog number
content: 1992.0427.22ab
label: accession number
content: 1992.0427
label: collector/donor number
content: 671
objectType: label: Object Name
content: bowl, tea
label: Object Name
content: saucer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: hard-paste porcelain (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: polychrome (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: battle scene (overall style)
label: Measurements
content: overall tea bowl: 1 7/8 in x 3 in; 4.7625 cm x 7.62 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall saucer: 15/16 in x 4 15/16 in; 2.38125 cm x 12.54125 cm