Pair of fountains; Meisen; c. 1850.

Pair of fountains; Meisen; c. 1850.
Porcelain.
Presents seal on the base.
Measurements: 8 x 30 cm (x2).
The Meissen Manufactory was the first European factory to produce authentic porcelain. The manufacture was initiated by the scientist Ehrenfried Walther von Tchirnhaus in 1708, and after his premature death his work was continued by Joahnn Friedrich Böttger, who remained practically imprisoned in the facilities of the factory in order to protect the secret of the formula of the porcelain. The production of Meissen porcelain began in 1710, one year after the factory was founded by Augustus the Strong, and soon achieved great fame throughout Europe. In order to prevent forgeries, he introduced his famous mark, two crossed swords, in 1720, making his one of the oldest pottery marks in existence (it still remains on the pieces of Meissen's heir firm, the Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen GMBH). Initially, Meissen's production imitated oriental production, especially Japanese kakiemon ("indianische Blumen"), although enameled pieces with landscape, floral and gallant themes were also produced, the latter derived from the painting of the Frenchman Antoine Watteau. Undecorated glazed porcelain pieces were also produced, which were sold to other workshops, where they were decorated with enamels. However, in 1717 a former Meissen worker, Samuel Stöltzel, sold the secret of porcelain to a manufactory in Vienna, and by 1760 there were about thirty manufacturers of genuine porcelain in Europe. However, most of these manufactories produced soft-paste porcelain, due to the difficulty of accessing kaolin, the basic ingredient of authentic porcelain (hard paste). After an initial production of rococo style, which evolved towards neoclassical in the 1750s, in the nineteenth century we witnessed a new style known as "second rococo", inspired by the first productions of the manufacture, which coexisted with other historicisms, including the sculpture in round bulk, mainly in glazed porcelain, following models of both rococo and neoclassical.