Meissen cup and saucer: one of a pair
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: Pair of cups and saucers
label: Description
content: MAKER: Meissen Manufactory
label: Description
content: PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: ceramic, porcelain (overall material)
label: Description
content: MEASUREMENTS: Cups: H. 2¾" 7cm; Saucers: D. 5¼" 13.3cm
label: Description
content: OBJECT NAME: Pair of cups and saucers
label: Description
content: PLACE MADE: Meissen, Saxony, Germany
label: Description
content: DATE MADE: 1740-1745
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: 1983.0565.57 Aab, Bab
label: Description
content: COLLECTOR/ DONOR: 152 Aab, Bab
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 saucer; “63” impressed on saucer.
label: Description
content: PURCHASED FROM: Adolf Beckhardt, The Art Exchange, New York, 1942.
label: Description
content: This pair of coffee cups and saucers comes 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: Elaborate gold cartouches frame finely painted purple overglaze battle scenes between European and Ottoman military. On the saucers the cartouche frames the same subject. Many of the Meissen battle scenes 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 other artists who documented the cavalry battles and skirmishes fought on European soil in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. The subjects on these cups and saucers are attributed to engravings after 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 Eastern Europe from the Ottoman Empire remained vivid in the European imagination, and there were still many more conflicts ahead. There was still a strong sense of the topicality of these subjects which explains its presence on these cups and saucers. The enamel and gold painting is in good condition which suggests that these items were displayed and not put to use.
label: Description
content: The Meissen manufactory operated under a system of division of labor. Enamel painters specializing in landscapes, harbor scenes, and battle scenes 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 or salary. Gold painting was the responsibility of another painter specializing in this form of decoration.
label: Description
content: The coffee cups and saucers are of the same pattern as the tea cup and saucer ID# 1983.0565.58ab. Although not from the same service which has a different pattern of gold decoration compare these pieces with the coffeepot (ID number 1983.0565.57 a,b).
label: Description
content: On graphic sources for Meissen’s painters see Möller, K. A., “’…fine copper pieces for the factory…’ Meissen Pieces Based on graphic originals” in Pietsch, U., Banz, C., 2010, Triumph of the Blue Swords: Meissen Porcelain for Aristocracy and Bourgoisie 1710-1815, pp. 84-93.
label: Description
content: On the subject of war in printmaking see James clifton, Leslie M. Scatone, Ermine Fetvaci, 2009, The Plains of Mars: European War Prints 1500-1825.
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. 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
label: See more items in
content: Meissen Porcelain: The Hans Syz Collection
label: See more items in
content: Art
label: See more items in
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: 1983.0565.45Bab
label: catalog number
content: 1983.0565.45Bab
label: accession number
content: 1983.0565
label: collector/donor number
content: 152b
objectType: label: Object Name
content: cup
label: Object Name
content: saucer
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: blue underglaze (overall color)
label: Physical Description
content: monochrome, purple (component surface decoration color name)
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: 2 3/4 in; 6.985 cm
label: Measurements
content: saucer: 5 1/4 in; 13.335 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall cup: 2 11/16 in x 3 15/16 in x 2 13/16 in; 6.82625 cm x 10.00125 cm x 7.14375 cm
label: Measurements
content: overall saucer: 1 1/8 in x 5 5/16 in; 2.8575 cm x 13.49375 cm