Meissen cup and saucer
date: label: date made
content: ca 1740-1745
label: date made
content: 1740-1745
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. 1⅞" 4.8cm; Saucer: D. 5¼" 13.3cm.
label: Description
content: OBJECT NAME: Cup and saucer
label: Description
content: PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
label: Description
content: DATE MADE: 1740-1745
label: Description
content: SUBJECT:
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: 1983.0565.58 a,b
label: Description
content: COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 181 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; “P” impressed on cup; “JN” or “JM”incised on saucer.
label: Description
content: PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1942.
label: Description
content: This tea 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: Painted in overglaze purple enamel the subjects of Ottoman and European soldiers at rest while on a campaign are framed by cartouches painted in gold and black on the front of the cup and in the center of the saucer.
label: Description
content: Many of the Meissen military subjects were based on engravings after the work of battle scene painters Georg Philipp Rugendas the Elder (1666-1742)and August Querfurth (1696-1761), among many others who documented the cavalry battles and skirmishes fought on European soil in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. The enamel paintings on the tea cup and saucer are after engravings of original works by Rugendas. In 1683 following a two month siege of the city of Vienna, Habsburg armies forced the Ottoman military into retreat, but the threat to central and east Europe from the Ottoman Empire remained vivid in the European mind and imagination, and there were yet more conflicts like the Great Northern War against Sweden and the War of the Spanish Succession that engaged many European countries. This explains the topicality of these subjects well into the eighteenth century.
label: Description
content: The tea cup and saucer are of the same pattern as the two coffee cups ID# 1983.0565.45Aab and 45Bab. The enamel and gold is in good condition which suggests the pieces were displayed and not put into use.
label: Description
content: The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes, battle scenes, and other subjects with figures were paid more than those who painted flowers, fruits and underglaze blue patterns. Most painters received pay by the piece rather than a regular wage.
label: Description
content: Ornamental gold painting and polishing of the fired gold was the work of other specialists in the manufactory.
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: On the subject of war in prints see Clifton, J., Scatone, L. M., Fetvaci, 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. 328-329.
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
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
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Dr Hans Syz
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1983.0565.58ab
label: catalog number
content: 1983.0565.58ab
label: accession number
content: 1983.0565
label: collector/donor number
content: 181
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: purple and black enamel and gold (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: battle scenes (overall style)
label: Measurements
content: cup: 1 7/8 in; 4.7625 cm
label: Measurements
content: saucer: 5 1/4 in; 13.335 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall cup: 1 13/16 in x 3 7/8 in x 3 1/16 in; 4.60375 cm x 9.8425 cm x 7.77875 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall saucer: 1 1/8 in x 5 3/8 in; 2.8575 cm x 13.6525 cm