Vienna porcelain
Vienna porcelain is the product of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory (German: Kaiserlich privilegierte Porcellain Fabrique), a porcelain manufacturer in Alsergrund in Vienna, Austria. It was founded in 1718 and continued until 1864.
The firm was Europe's second-oldest porcelain factory after Meissen porcelain, and for 25 years the two remained the only European producers. Initially it was a private enterprise, founded by Claude du Paquier, an official of the Viennese Imperial court, but in 1744 it was rescued from financial difficulties when bought by the Empress Maria Theresa, and thereafter remained an asset of the emperors.
The wares from the earlier, private period before 1744 are the most sought-after today, if only because production was lower and so the pieces are much more rare. These are often called Du Paquier porcelain from the Du Paquier factory. The other high point, "perhaps the factory's most glamorous period", was from 1784 to 1805 when a variety of innovative wares in broadly Neoclassical styles were produced, then with Sèvres porcelain the main influence. Wares were used as diplomatic gifts by the emperors, and exports to Turkey were significant.
In 1717, Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier went looking to produce procelain in Vienna. When he was usucessful he bribed Christoph Conrad Hunger form Meissen for the secret formula. When Hunger's knowledge was not enought he hired Samuel Stölzel in 1719 leading to the factory's first successful hard-paste porcelain production. The factory was on Porzellangasse ("Porcelain Lane") in Alsergrund, now Vienna's 9th district. The history of the manufactory is often divided by German writers into five periods. The first period, used by all sources, was under its founder and first director du Paquier, who was given a monopoly for 25 years. This is therefore known as the "Du Paquier period", and many sources talk of "Du Paquier porcelain" and the "Du Paquier factory", usually with a capital "D", although his actual name has a small "d". While Meissen and most later German factories were owned by the local ruler, and usually heavily funded, du Pacquier received only permission to manufacture, and many orders for wares, from the emperor, and the factory seems always to have been under-capitalized in his time. This situation lasted from 1718 to 1744, when the monopoly expired and the financial difficulties apparently came to a head; the empress intervened by buying the factory, which was then renamed as the "Imperial State Manufactory Vienna".
The second period is the "Plastic period" (1744-1784), the third is the "Sorgenthal period", or "Painterly period" (Malerische Periode) of 1784-1805, then the "Biedermeier period" (1805-1833) and finally the "Late Biedermeier period" (1833-1864).
By the last quarter of the 18th century, as many as 120,000 pieces annually were exported to the Ottoman Empire; these were typically brightly coloured, but less finely painted than those for European markets. Many were sets of the small cups used for Turkish coffee.
The factory received a boost from the Congress of Vienna in 1815, in the course of which it was visited by a number of monarchs and other leading figures, although King George IV of the United Kingdom never went to Vienna and so missed the service he would have been presented with. According to another account, the king preferred to be sent a quantity of Tokay wine. Although exports to the Ottoman Empire continued, by the 1860s the factory was suffering from increased competition from Bohemian factories in particular, and was eventually closed by the Austrian parliament in 1864, with the moulds and other equipment being given to the Museum of Applied Arts, Vienna. The wares are sometimes called "old Vienna" (or Alt Wien in German).
The name was revived in 1923 with the foundation of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory Augarten.
The reopening was fortunate as it went along with the Art Deco movement. It captivated the Viennese with symbolisms of modern living, optimistic atmosphere, and social changes.
Text courtesy of Wikipedia, 2024