Figurines Section

Meissen Information

The single most important fact about Meissen was the discovery of hard paste porcelain, hitherto a jealously guarded secret, by the chemist Tschimhaus and the alchemist Johann Friedrich Boettger in Dresden at the beginning of the eighteenth century. In 1708 the code was cracked and Europe's first indigenous porcelain had been developed.

In 1710 a factory was founded by Bottger under the patronage of Augustus II The Strong in his schloss, The Albrechtburg, in Meissen outside Dresden in what is now eastern Germany. By the mid-1700s, Meissen porcelain adorned royal palaces and aristocratic estates across the continent.

Almost 300 years later, the company now known as Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen continues to craft some of the world's most prestigious ceramic tableware and figurines, including many of the original 18th-century designs created for kings and courtiers when the Baroque and Rococo styles were at their opulent height.

Meissen is also known for its unusually rich palette of about 10,000 distinct color compounds derived from refined metal oxides, which are mixed by hand and applied by a staff of some 600 highly-trained artists.

WARNING:-
If a piece does not have a "crossed swords" mark it is not a Meissen.

View The Meissen Collection

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