Volkstedt porcelain

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Leda and the Swan, Volkstedt porcelain, c 1785 (Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin)

Volkstedt porcelain manufactory sited in Rudolstadt, Thuringia, Germany, was the earliest porcelain manufactory in Thuringia.[1] It was in business as Aelteste Volkstedter Porzellanmanufaktur, the "Oldest Volkstedt Porcelain Manufactory", which was integrated into the VEB Vereinigte Zierporzellanwerke Lichte, which in turn formed part of the .[2]

The factory had its origins in an official request made 8 September 1760 by the porcelain maker Georg Heinrich Macheleid (1723 -1801). Macheleid had long worked in the glass manufactory at and had gained the arcana of porcelain-making by his own researches, apparently independent of Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and Johann Friedrich Böttger, the ceramists at Meissen. He wished to open a privileged porcelain factory, making true hard-paste porcelain, intended to be sited in Sitzendorf.[3] In 1762 the privilege was granted by Johann Friederich, Fürst von Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, a great patron of the arts and music, specifying that the manufactory was to be set up near his princely court of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt, under his personal direction.

Volkstedt gained a reputation for its finely painted and carefully modeled porcelain figures that it holds for collectors today.

In 1797 Ernest Constantine, Landgrave of Hesse-Philippsthal, acquired the porcelain manufactory in Volkstedt, which he sold two years later. Following the reunification of Germany, in 2006/07 the factory buildings were restored to their 18th-century appearance and opened to the public.

During the 19th century the manufactory attracted subsidiary and rival workshops in Rudolstadt: they included Beyer & Bock, Karl Ens, Kämmer & Kramer, Ernst Bohne Söhne, Műller & Hammer.

Marks, in underglaze blue, include the ubiquitous crowned N adopted from Capodimonte by many manufactories, closed crown and R (Rudostadt) with crossed swords (adopted from Meissen) or 1762.

Notes[]

  1. ^ Wilhelm Stieda, Die anfänge der porzellanfabrikation auf dem Thüringerwalde 1902:ch.IV:30-43, working from archival material in Rudolstadt, some of which he reproduces.
  2. ^ Lange, P and U. Koch, "Porcelain from Volkstedt for 225 Years", Silikatttechnik 38.5 (1987)
  3. ^ Irma Hoyt Reed, "The European Hard-Paste Porcelain Manufacture of the Eighteenth Century" The Journal of Modern History, 8.3 September 1936.

References[]

  • Jürgen Sattler: "Die älteste Volkstedter Porzellanfabrik A. G. und das ehemalige „Porzellan-Palais“ in Leipzig", in Keramos 112, 1986: 55-62
  • Thüringer Landesmuseum Heidecksburg Rudolstadt : Volkstedter Porzellan, 1760–1800, Rudolstadt 1999, ISBN 3-910013-31-7
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