Meissen
Europe’s first hard-paste porcelain factory, in Saxony. Known for Johann Joachim Kändler’s figures, the Swan Service and the Onion pattern.
The alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger and Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus discovered how to make hard-paste porcelain, and Augustus the Strong founded the manufactory in the Albrechtsburg in Meissen. It was the first in Europe.
Johann Gregorius Höroldt developed the colours, and Johann Joachim Kändler modelled figurines and the Swan Service. The Onion pattern, Zwiebelmuster, of 1739 became one of the most copied patterns in the history of porcelain. The manufactory is now owned by the state of Saxony.
The crossed swords in underglaze blue, since the 1720s; variants of the swords date pieces. One or more cuts through the swords mean seconds.