Meissen covered cup and stand
date: label: date made
content: ca 1740
label: date made
content: 1740
name: label: maker
content: Meissen Manufactory
notes: label: Description
content: TITLE: Meissen covered cup and stand
label: Description
content: MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
label: Description
content: PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
label: Description
content: MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H. 5" 12.8cm; Stand: L. 6¾" 17.2cm
label: Description
content: OBJECT NAME: Covered cup and stand
label: Description
content: PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
label: Description
content: DATE MADE: 1740
label: Description
content: SUBJECT: Art
label: Description
content: Domestic Furnishing
label: Description
content: Industry and Manufacturing
label: Description
content: CREDIT LINE: Hans C. Syz Collection
label: Description
content: ID NUMBER: 1984.1140.10 abc
label: Description
content: COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 444 abc
label: Description
content: ACCESSION NUMBER:
label: Description
content: (DATA SOURCE: National Museum of American History, Kenneth E. Behring Center)
label: Description
content: MARKS: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; incised cross, former’s mark.
label: Description
content: PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1944.
label: Description
content: This covered cup and stand 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 the German States, 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 cup with two handles in the form of twisted vines sits on a lobed, oval-shaped stand. Roses mixed with forget-me-nots, pinks, and narcissi are applied in swags in high relief, and painted in gold on the center of the stand is a spray of flowers. The interiors of the cup and cover are painted and burnished in gold.
label: Description
content: Johann Joachim Kaendler’s work report of May/June 1738, and September 1739 records his production of models for a breakfast service for The Electress of Saxony and Queen of Poland, Maria Josepha (1699-1757) consort of Augustus III. This covered cup and stand, however, does not have the camaïeu landscapes painted in purple enamel in the well of the stands that are found on Maria Josepha’s service, examples of which are now in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin. A cup and stand made in this elaborate style may have been part of a royal gift, and the service for Maria Josepha was one of the first in a series of items modeled by Kaendler that featured applied floral ornaments, which are time-consuming to make and require considerable skill. Flowers at Meissen are sculpted free-hand, but with the aid of cone-shaped plaster stamps for producing naturalistic curved forms.
label: Description
content: On the service for Maria Josepha see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, p. 240-241; Samuel Wittwer, “Liasons Fragile: Exchanges of Gifts Between Saxony and Prussia in the Early Eighteenth Century” in Cassidy-Geiger, M., 2008, Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for European Courts 1710-1763, p.101); on porcelain flower making at Meissen see Alfred Ziffer, “ ‘…skillfully made ready for moulding…’” The Work of Johann Joachim Kaendler in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, p.63.
label: Description
content: Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 272-273.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany: Saxony, Meissen
topic: label: Subject
content: Manufacturing
setName: label: See more items in
content: Home and Community Life: Ceramics and Glass
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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: 1984.1140.10abc
label: catalog number
content: 1984.1140.10abc
label: accession number
content: 1984.1140
label: collector/donor number
content: 444
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cup
label: Object Name
content: stand
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: hard-paste porcelain (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: white and gold (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: floral swags in high relief (overall style)
label: Measurements
content: cup: 5 in; 12.7 cm
label: Measurements
content: stand: 6 3/4 in; 17.145 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall: 5 1/4 in x 6 3/4 in x 5 1/4 in; 13.335 cm x 17.145 cm x 13.335 cm