Ice cream pail (one of a pair)
porcelain ca. 1730, mounts ca. 1780–90
Medium
Hard-paste porcelain, gilt bronze
Dimensions
Overall (confirmed): 12 3/8 × 9 7/8 × 7 3/4 in. (31.4 × 25.1 × 19.7 cm)
Classification
Ceramics-Porcelain
Culture
German, Meissen with Italian, Rome mounts
Department
European Sculpture and Decorative Arts
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, 2013
Accession Number
2013.139.2a, b
Tags
Art Historical Context
This elegant ice cream pail, one of a pair, exemplifies the opulence of 18th-century European luxury goods. Produced by the renowned Meissen Manufactory in Germany around 1730, the hard-paste porcelain body represents a technological triumph: Meissen was the first in Europe to successfully replicate the fine, translucent porcelain long prized from China. Later enhanced with intricate gilt bronze mounts crafted in Rome circa 1780–90, it reflects evolving tastes, blending Rococo exuberance with later neoclassical refinement. Such pails were designed for elite dining, cooling desserts in grand ba...
About the Artist
Meissen Manufactory · 1710–present
The Meissen Manufactory, established on June 6, 1710, by Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, marked the dawn of true hard-paste porcelain production in Europe. Nestled at Albrechtsburg Castle in Meissen near Dresden, the Royal Polish and Electoral Saxon Porcelain Manufactory arose from alchemical experiments begun in 1708 by physicist Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and p...