JOIN USPorcelain originated in China during the reign of the Tang dynasty (618-907 AD), but with Marco Polo it travelled to Italy in 1295, and later became a part of Europe’s craftsmanship.
Edmund de Waal, who has worked with porcelain for 25 years, recently published the book, The White Road, which explains the journey of the magical clay, along with his memoirs and anecdotes. These inclusions make it more than just tracing a history.
He says, “It’s really quite simple, a pilgrimage of sorts to beginnings; a chance to walk up the mountain where the white earth comes from. I have a plan to go to three places where porcelain was invented, or reinvented — three white hills, one each in China, Germany and England.” The writer travels from Jingdezhen in south-eastern China, known to be the porcelain capital, to Dresden (Germany) and Cornwall (England).
Arduous process
According to the book, the process of making porcelain, kept secret for centuries, begins with the mining of two substances — petuntse, or porcelain stone, and kaolin, or porcelain clay. “First, they are dug from the earth and then purified, mixed, shaped, glazed and fired. It was an industry that once involved thousands of different labourers and thousands of now half-extinct skills and techniques. Among them were six categories of decorators, mould-makers, carpenters for crates, basket-makers, ash men...”
But the journey of porcelain in Austria started with Claudius Innocentius du Paquier, who, in 1718, was responsible for establishing the second porcelain manufactory in Europe. Manufactured in Vienna, this porcelain was called the Augarten porcelain.
Augarten pieces bear the shield from the coat of arms of the Dukes of Austria as a trademark. Austrian connection with porcelain developed further with Duke Alexander of Lorraine’s porcelain collection from the Far East, which are displayed at Hofburg Palace in Vienna. It then peaked with tableware collection of Empress Maria Theresa in the mid-18th century.
Some of the surviving pieces from Duke Alexander of Lorraine’s collection represent an interesting symbiosis between the Far Eastern and European culture. European silversmiths created a unique combination of silver and gold with porcelain from Japan and China. Their blue, red and gold-painted decorations represent the typical colours of Japanese porcelain of that epoch, which are known as Imari ware.
Tambours or bronze-gilt stands that held sweetmeats and decorated the imperial dining table belonged to the New French centre piece, acquired by the young Emperor Franz Joseph. In 1803, Emperor Franz of Austria ordered a porcelain service comprising 120 items for the court table, including 60 pictorial plates for dessert and 24 ‘panorama’ soup plates of exceptional quality.
The choice of motifs was both patriotic and romantic. Framed by gold rims, the scenes include erupting volcanoes, icy glacier landscapes or imposing Viennese architecture — with each plate displaying three views from Austria, Switzerland and Italy, executed by the best porcelain painters after old engravings, a painstaking task that took five years.
The white-and-gold dinner service was acquired for Emperor Ferdinand in 1851, who was abdicated from the throne during the course of the bourgeois revolution of 1848 and subsequently moved to Prague, where he lived until his death. It was ordered for the imperial household in Prague from the porcelain manufactory of the Counts of Thun at Klösterle in Bohemia. The design represented the height of upmarket fashion of the time.
At turn of the century
Tastes changed around the mid-19th century, with the emphatically clear lines of the Biedermeier era giving way to a softer, more flowing, formal idiom. The rich gold decoration expressed the growing need to demonstrate feudal magnificence, a tendency that was also felt at the imperial Viennese court.
Another magnificent service with the green ribbons was a precious gift as a sign of increasing rapprochement between France and Austria after the bloody wars of succession — from the French king Louis XV to Empress Maria Theresa.
Green intertwining ribbons represent the main decorative element, while between the ribbons are delicately ornamented motifs representing love, poetry, music, painting and sculpture.
Such elegant wares were produced by the royal French porcelain manufactory at Sèvres (France), which was founded in 1738. They are made of a special porcelain called frit, which allows the colours to develop a particularly intense radiance due to the lower firing temperature. There was a tradition, which dictated every archduke of the Habsburg family to learn a manual craft or trade.
The Vienna porcelain manufactory was commissioned to produce two series of floral plates dedicated to Emperor Franz II/I (1768-1835), who had learned gardening and loved flowers. These plates were used to serve desserts.
The Meissen china, considered the first European hard-paste porcelain, is believed to have been developed from 1708 onwards by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, a German mathematician, physicist, physician, and philosopher, who claimed to be the inventor of European porcelain.
The Meissen service made around 1775 is striking for its exquisite floral painting. The shapes of the individual pieces are good examples of Baroque Classicism.
A remarkable exhibit here is the unusual English dinner service that Empress Elisabeth gave to Emperor Franz Joseph for his hunting lodge at Offensee (Austria). Dating back to 1870, it was designed by William Coleman and is decorated with elements of nature.
Empress Elisabeth’s palace didn’t have a bathroom until she had one installed in 1876. Even after this, most of the court household had to make do with sets of sanitary porcelain consisting of washbasins, water jugs, footbaths, shaving bowls, soap dishes, chamber pots and so on.
The manufactory dropped out from business in 1864. The porcelain of the manufactory in Vienna is often referred to as ‘Alt Wien’ (Old Vienna) porcelain, to distinguish it from the products of the new Augarten manufactory, which was established in 1923, and has since revived the traditions of the old Vienna porcelain manufactory.
A new glean
Modern designers such as Josef Hoffmann, Walter Bosse and Hertha Bucher did characterise its production in the 1920s and 1930s.
The preference for clarifying simplicity that prevailed in the 1950s is on display, as are works by Arik Brauer from the 1970s.
Albin Denk is another name which can’t be avoided when depicting Viennese porcelain.
The company was founded in 1702 as the first porcelain house in the city centre of Vienna, and awarded with the title ‘imperial purveyors’ (1878). They have collaborated with renowned suppliers over the years to manufacture quality products.