Cup and Saucer
Medium
Hard-paste porcelain and polychrome enamels
Dimensions
Cup: H. 5.6 cm (2 3/16 in.) diam. 5.6 cm (2 3/16 in.) Saucer: H. 2.7 cm (1 1/16 in.) diam. 12.5 cm (4 15/16 in.)
Classification
drinking vessel
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
64578
Art Historical Context
This delicate cup and saucer, by the renowned Meissen Porcelain Manuf in 1797, the pinnacle of 18th-century European porcelain. Produced at the factory founded in 1710 near Dresden, Germany—the first in Europe to successfully replicate Chinese hard-paste porcelain—this piece measures a dainty cup height of 5.6 cm and saucer diameter of 12.5 cm. The medium of hard-paste porcelain, fired at high temperatures for exceptional durability and translucency, combined with polychrome enamels, for intricate, colorful decorations that mimicked fine painting on canvas. Meissen's innovations revolutionize...
About the Artist
Meissen Porcelain Manufactory
The Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, established on June 6, 1710, by Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in the Albrechtsburg castle at Meissen near Dresden, marked Europe's breakthrough in producing true hard-paste porcelain. Building on experiments by physicist Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, who perfected the formula using local...