Meissen cup and saucer
date: label: date made
content: ca 1740-1750
label: date made
content: 1740-1750
name: label: maker
content: Meissen Manufactory
notes: label: Description
content: TITLE: Meissen cup and saucer
label: Description
content: MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
label: Description
content: PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
label: Description
content: MEASUREMENTS: Cup: H 1¼" 3.2cm; Saucer: L. 4⅜" 11.1cm
label: Description
content: OBJECT NAME: Cup and saucer
label: Description
content: PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
label: Description
content: DATE MADE: 1740-1750
label: Description
content: SUBJECT: The Hans Syz Collection
label: Description
content: 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: 1989.0715.18 a,b
label: Description
content: COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 1435 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: Crossed swords in underglaze blue; “17” impressed on cup.
label: Description
content: PURCHASED FROM: A. K. Kuntze, Munich, Germany, 1964.
label: Description
content: This cup 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 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 small cup and saucer in quatrefoil shape both have a gold ground introduced at Meissen in 1734. Flowers and insects are painted in onglaze polychrome enamels. There is a moth painted on the lower part of the handle, and a moth or butterfly with closed wings can be found on the interior of the cup. Insects and scattered flowers were sometimes painted to disguise a blemish in the glaze. The areas painted in polychrome enamels were blocked out while the gold was applied, fired, and polished, then the flowers and insects were painted on the exposed glazed areas and the pieces fired once again to fix the enamels to the glaze. Two firings and a second polishing of gold surfaces were favored in order to bring out the metal’s radiance and eradicate irregularities on the surface.
label: Description
content: The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Flower painters were paid less than workers who specialized in figures and landscapes, and most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage. The gold ground was applied and polished by workers who specialized in these techniques. In the late eighteenth century flower painters were even busier and consumer taste for floral decoration on domestic “china” continues into our own time, but with the exception of a manufactory like Meissen most floral patterns are now applied by transfers and are not hand-painted directly onto the porcelain.
label: Description
content: On the Meissen dinner services see Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815
label: Description
content: On the painting division at Meissen see Rückert, R., 1990, Biographische Daten der Meißener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, pp. 134-136.
label: Description
content: Hans Syz, J. Jefferson Miller II, Rainer Rückert, 1979, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection: Meissen Porcelain and Hausmalerei, pp. 376-377.
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: 1989.0715.18ab
label: catalog number
content: 1989.0715.18ab
label: accession number
content: 1989.0715
label: collector/donor number
content: 1435ab
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cup
label: Object Name
content: saucer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: hard-paste porcelain (overall material)
label: Physical Description
content: polychrome enamel and gold (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: flowers and insects (overall style)
label: Measurements
content: cup: 1 1/4 in; 3.175 cm
label: Measurements
content: saucer: 4 3/8 in; 11.1125 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall cup: 1 3/8 in x 3 in x 2 3/16 in; 3.4925 cm x 7.62 cm x 5.55625 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall saucer: 7/8 in x 4 1/4 in x 3 7/8 in; 2.2225 cm x 10.795 cm x 9.8425 cm