Vienna Porcelain

Vienna porcelain, ceramic ware made at the Vienna factory in Austria between 1719 and 1864. Claudius Innocentius du Paquier (d. 1751), a Dutchman, began making porcelain there with the help of two workmen from Meissen in Germany. In 1744 he sold the enterprise to the Austrian state. After a succession of different directors, Konrad von Sorgenthal took over the direction in 1784. After Sorgenthal’s death in 1805, the factory produced little that was original.

Vienna porcelain achieved fame early for its rich decoration, which took many forms as one period of taste gave way to another. During the du Paquier period, the range included formal, orientalizing flowers (indianische Blumen), succeeded by more naturalistic flowers (deutsche Blumen) based on contemporary European illustrations; leaf and strapwork patterns; black monochrome painting (Schwarzlot), often of animals and hunting scenes; and little figures in the “Chinese” taste drawn with more than usual vivacity and assurance. The colour range, which included mauve, green, blue, gray, brownish gray, and pink, was dominated by a colour graduating from orange to rust. Of the many artists employed at Vienna, Jakobus Helchis (fl. 1740) was distinguished for cupids drawn delicately but strongly in a range of pink, mauve, and orange. The State period, until 1784, had Johann Josef Niedermayer, who produced porcelain figures of distinction from 1747 to 1784 as Modellmeister. In the period from Sorgenthal’s direction onward, the Neoclassical taste was paramount, and the artistry was that of the miniaturist. The use of gilding gave a jewellike appearance to the tableware, and new background colours were developed, such as dark blue, dark brown, and bright yellow; they tended to cover the whole outer area of the vessel except for small reserves (spaces) in which minute landscapes, figures, and the like were brilliantly executed. The repertoire of classical and Renaissance motifs was augmented by antique designs collected by Anton Grassi (who had succeeded Niedermayer as Modellmeister in 1778). The factory began to decline in 1805 and closed in 1864.