Swan Service
One of the largest services of the 18th century: more than two thousand pieces with swans and shells in relief.
The service was ordered by Count Heinrich von Brühl, director of the Meissen porcelain factory. The modeller Johann Joachim Kändler designed it in 1737–1742, and it counts among the first wholly European services in the Rococo style.
Meissen was the first European maker of true hard-paste porcelain. Its mark, the crossed swords, has been copied so often that it is only the start of an investigation.
Materials: Hard-paste porcelain with enamel colours and gilding
Manufacture: Modelled and painted at the Meissen porcelain factory; the reliefs were cast in plaster moulds.
The reliefs of shells and waves that cover the surface.
Swans, dolphins and sea creatures, gilded or painted.
The crossed swords in underglaze blue, Meissen’s mark.