Plates - 6
from Italian Traditional Food

Meissen plates

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Continuing the potted history of plates ....

Meissen porcelain

It is not seriously suggested that you start collecting early Meissen porcelain unless you have unlimited funds and patience, the factory's early development is interesting. It was the first place in western Europe to discover the Chinese formula for making hard-paste porcelain, and the style and decoration of its wares had a profound and extensive influence on 18th century china. Not until the outbreak of the Seven Years War in 1756 did it lose its European lead, which passed to Sevres for the next twenty years.

Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony, had a passion for collecting Chinese porcelain and as his collection increased, his state coffers emptied. He heard of the researches of a promising young alchemist named Bottger, who was engaged in finding a way of turning base metal into gold. Thinking that he might be a useful person to "protect", Augustus had him brought to Dresden in 1701 and a year later a factory to house his experiments was built at Meissen, 12 miles from the royal court.

Bottger didn't succeed in turning dross into gold, but he did the next best thing. In 1707 he successfully imitated Chinese red stoneware, and by 1730 the factory was producing cut and polished articles of a higher quality than the original Chinese. Many pots for infusing tea were made in the shape of the old Yi-Hsing wine jars, and this shape, in fact, has stayed with us to this day.,

Manufacture of European porcelain

Then, in 1709, Bottger rediscovered hard-paste porcelain and a delighted Augustus ordered his court goldsmith to take a hand in the designing. The manufacture of European porcelain had begun, and competitors soon appeared.

Meanwhile, at Meissen, money was being spent in perfecting brilliant background colours, and the clear yellow, green, maroon and lilac formed the inspiration for so much of the decoration on English porcelain. But despite a handsome reward offered by the Elector, a satisfactory blue - like that of Sevres - was never found.

Delicate sprays of flowers and lifelike birds were painted in "reserved" (plain) panels and later, Watteausque pastoral scenes were depicted on plates. These heavily decorated pieces, too elaborate for today's taste, were copied all over Europe.

Page 7 of this Italian Traditional Food article on plates can be found on the next page.

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