Chloeev's Vintage Glassware And Art Glass Showcase

Rookwood...the name alone evokes visions of quality pottery and craftsmanship. There are almost as many collectors today as there are pieces of pottery to collect! This type pottery is a highly sought after line of pottery, mainly due to the demands of the pottery to never compromise on quality and uphold their tradition.

Rookwood Pottery was founded in 1880 by Marie Longworth Nichols. Rookwood pottery's initial work demonstrated an Oriental and European influence. Throughout Rookwood's years they mastered such diverse styles as Victorian, art nouveau, arts and crafts, and art deco.

From the very beginning, Rookwood pottery's production and quality standards exceeded virtually every other American art pottery manufacturer. As a result, Rookwood pottery achieved a greatness that was second to none. Rookwood was one of the few potteries to mark items as seconds for even the most minute factory inconsistencies.

In the early 1900's Rookwood pottery quickly moved into the arts and crafts and art nouveau styles. During this time, Rookwood introduced many of the more desirable and important glazes such as Iris, Vellum, Sea Green, Ariel Blue and painted mattes.

Around 1905, Rookwood pottery introduced its production line of pottery. Rookwood's production pottery was simply glazed and not artist decorated or signed. As with most of the American art pottery companies, Rookwood's best production pieces are its earlier examples.

Rookwood pottery employed over 120 artist and decorators during its years of operation. Rookwood ended production in 1960.

Rookwood actually set the mark for the other potteries to aspire to become. Their vases and other items are absolutely stunning and actually stand out from the rest. It is very easy to tell a Rookwood vase from others, just by looking at the style, glaze and quality.

If you are looking for a pottery to start collecting, Rookwood is a wonderful choice!

For quite awhile now, collectors have shied away from Asian pottery. The reason; there are so many different marks and it can be hard to determine the age and history of the pottery, china or porcelain.

I have always been a fan of Nippon, Noritake, Made in Japan and Occupied Japan. The old rule, if it says 'Made in Japan' don't buy it...no longer applies. There are some fabulous items to be collected that are 'Made in Japan'.

The very first thing to understand, What does Nippon mean? Nippon simply means Japan. It also was shown as a rising sun in backstamps on china and porcelain. There are instances where the name Nippon was used. In the case of the covered servng bowl pictured with this article, it is marked Nippon Toki Kasha. The mark on the bottom is 5 'M's arranged in a circle to look like a cherry blossom. This company was the beginning of the Noritake Company. The company employed several smaller companies to make exports for the US market.

Because Japan made so much china and porcelain for the export market, it can be hard sometimes to identify the maker of the item. The porcelain companies would find a certain pattern or style the US market was buying and would attempt to copy it. A good example is the Meissen Red Dragon pattern that was so popular around the 1940s. There were several different styles made by different makers in an attempt to copy Meissen.

Today, the most highly collected Asian pottery or china would be the Occupied Japan. This pottery was made during the time when Japan was occupied during the war. We find mostly small fiqurines, as these were made by the 1000s to be exported into the US.

There are several websites to help you identify your item by the backstamp. The most complete set of backstamps and informational site I've used is:
Gotheborg.com There is a wealth of information to help you with understanding how to identify your item, as well as pictures of backstamps to you compare your item.

I am what I call a 'Noritake Nut', I love anything and everything Asian. I am very happy to see the upswing and renewed interest in the Asian porcelain market. I hope you take the time to look into this most fascinating world of collecting Asian Art!

Wow! What a combination! Everyone knows quality artistic porcelain comes from the Meissen pottery factory. Then to have the wonderful, stunning Blue Onion pattern...it just is too much to handle!

I've just listed such an item. A Meissen Blue Onion (it gets even better!) Antique Coupe Shape Soup Tureen. Nothing could get better than this.
I've taken several pictures, 17 to be exact and included them in my listing. I still feel the pics don't do this item justice. To see it in all its glory is like looking at an item that belongs in a museum. The quality, the beauty, the pure essence of this item just puts me in awe of the Meissen artists.

A little about Meissen:

Meissen porcelain is the first European hard-paste porcelain that was developed from 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his untimely death that October, Johann Friedrich Böttger, continued his work and brought porcelain to the market, and he has often been credited with the invention. The production of porcelain at Meissen, near Dresden, started in 1710 and attracted artists and artisans to establish one of the most famous porcelain manufacturers, still in business today as Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen GmbH. Its signature logo, the crossed swords, was introduced in 1720 to protect its production; the mark of the crossed swords is one of the oldest trademarks in existence.
Beginnings

At the beginning of the eighteenth century Johann Friedrich Böttger pretended he had solved the dream of the alchemists, to produce gold from worthless materials. When the Elector of Saxony Augustus the Strong heard of it, he kept him in protective custody and requested him to produce gold.

For years Johann Friedrich Böttger was unsuccessful in this effort. At the same time, Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, a mathematician and scientist, experimented with the manufacture of glass, trying to make porcelain as well. Tschirnhaus supervised Böttger and by 1707 Böttger reluctantly started to help in the experiments by Tschirnhaus. When Tschirnhaus suddenly died, the recipe apparently was handed over to Böttger, who within one week announced to the Elector that he could make porcelain. Böttger refined the formula and with some Dutch co-workers, experienced in firing and painting tiles, the stage was set for the manufacturing of porcelain. In 1709, the Elector established the first Meissen manufactory, placed Böttger's laboratory at Albrechtsburg castle in Meissen and production started officially in 1710.

Early Work

The first type of porcelain produced by Böttger was a refined and extremely hard red stoneware known in Germany as Böttgersteinzeug. It retained very crisp definition in its mold-cast applied details, on bodies that could be polished to a gloss before firing. Models were derived from Baroque silver shapes and Chinese ceramic examples. Meissen's production of a hard paste white porcelain that could be glazed and painted soon followed, and wares were put on the market in 1713.

Böttger's experimental wares rapidly gained quality but never achieved successful painted and fired decor. The first successful ornaments were gold decorations applied upon the fired body and finely engraved before they received a second firing at a lower temperature. Multicolor enameled painting was introduced by Johann Gregorius Höroldt in 1723, with an increasingly broad palette of colors that marked the beginning of the classic phase of Meissen porcelain. His enamel paints are still the basis for ceramic paints today. Initially paintings often imitated oriental patterns. The signature underglaze "Meissen Blue" was introduced by Friedrich August Köttig. Soon minutely detailed landscapes and port scenes, animals, flowers, galante courtly scenes and chinoiseries- fanciful Chinese-inspired decorations- were to be found on Meissen porcelain.

Famous trademark

Meissen trademarks, The Albrechtsburg was utilized to protect the secrets of the manufacture of the white gold. As a further precaution, very few workers knew the special secret (arcanum) of how to make porcelain, and then perhaps only part of the process. Thus, for a few years, Meissen retained its monopoly on the production of hard-paste porcelain in Europe. By 1717, however, a competing production was set up at Vienna, as Samuel Stöltzel sold the secret recipe, which involved the use of kaolin, also known as china clay. By 1760 about thirty porcelain manufacturers were operating in Europe, most of them, however, producing frit based soft-paste porcelain.

Artistic development

In 1756, during the Seven Years' War, Prussian troops occupied Meissen, giving Frederick II of Prussia the opportunity to relocate some of the artisans to establish the Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur Berlin. With the changing tastes of the neoclassical period and the rise of Sèvres porcelain in the 1760s, Meissen had to readjust its production, and in the reorganization from 1763, C.W.E. Dietrich of the Dresden Academy became artistic director and Michel-Victor Acier from France became the modelmaster. The practice of impressing numerals that correspond to moulds in the inventory books began in 1763.

In the nineteenth century Ernst August Leuteritz modernized many of the rococo figurines, and reissued them, creating a "Second Rococo" characterized by lacework details (made from actual lace dipped in slip and fired) and applied flowers; English collectors used the term Dresden porcelain to describe these wares, especially the somewhat simpering and coy figurines.

After 1933, the artistic freedom of the artists became restricted by the State of Saxony in accordance with the contemporary indoctrination process in Germany. Some artists (i.e. Ernst Barlach) who had contributed to progressive Meissen during the Weimar period were banned.

After World War II and under Communist rule, the manufactory that had always catered to the rich and wealthy had some difficulty to find its way. The danger was that Meissen would become a factory merely producing for the masses. It was not until 1969, when Karl Petermann became the director, that Meissen went back to focus on its old traditions and was also allowed a freer artistic expression.

Tableware patterns

Already Böttger foresaw the production of tableware, and the first sets were made in the 1720s. Initially sets were plain, and it was Kaendler who introduced matching decorations. For the manufactory's director, Count Brühl, in 1737-43, the "Schwanen Service" ("Swan Service") was made, consisting eventually of more than one thousand pieces. At the end of World War II its pieces became scattered among collectors and museums. Yet with the moulds still available, the swan pattern continues to be made today. Kaendler also produced the 1745 "New Cutout" pattern characterized by a wavy edge cut.

The Blue Onion pattern has been in production for close to three centuries. It was basically designed by Höroldt in 1739 and is probably inspired by a Chinese bowl from the Kangxi period. Due to its popularity it has been copied extensively by over sixty companies. Many pieces with the blue onion pattern have been produced by competitors, some of them even using the term Meissen as a marking. The pattern was so popular and widespread that the German Supreme Court in 1926 ruled that the term Meissen Zwiebelmuster ("Meissen Onion Pattern") was in the public domain.

Other popular patterns still in production include the Purple Rose pattern and the Vine-leaf pattern.

A series of "Court Dragon" and "Red Dragon" tableware patterns feature Chinese dragons in underglaze red with gilded details flying around the rim of the plate and a medallion in the center of the cavetto. A version of this pattern was used in Hitler's Kehlsteinhaus retreat.

Ownership

At the beginning the Meissen manufactory was owned by the King of Saxony; by 1830 it came to belong to the State of Saxony. After World War II, most of the equipment was sent to the Soviet Union as part of war reparations. However, already by 1946, the workers using traditional methods and the kilns that had not been dismantled were able to resume production. The company became a Soviet Joint Stock Company in Germany. Almost all of the production was sent to the Soviet Union, a crucial step that kept the artisan community alive. After the establishment of the German Democratic Republic, the company was handed over to German ownership in 1950 and became a people-owned company. Meissen Porzellan turned out to be one of the few profitable companies in the economically troubled East German system, earning much needed foreign currency. After the German reunification in 1990, the company was restored to the State of Saxony which is the sole owner. While its products are expensive, the high quality and artistic value make Meissen porcelain very desirable by collectors and connoisseurs.

Meissen collections

The rarity and expense of Meissen porcelain meant that originally it could only be bought by the upper classes. Meissen took orders from the elites of Russia, France, England and other European countries. The European wealthy accumulated vast collections and when a wealthy class emerged in the United States people like the Vanderbilts started their own collections. Many of these collections then found their way into the world's great museums.

Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus, inventor of porcelain in Europe. Johann Friedrich Böttger, introduced manufacturing process of porcelain Heinrich Gottlieb Kühn, inventor of coloring process Friedrich August Köttig, inventor of Meissen Blue Johann Joachim Kaendler, master modeller ca. 1730-1770

To see my listing, please visit my eBay store; Drei Katzen Media

If you would like to more about Meissen or porcelain, or anything I can help you with, please contact me at info@dreikatzenmedia.com

If you have been collecting or selling porcelain any length of time, eventually you will come across the wonderful world of Artist Hand Painted Cabinet plates. These plates are absolutely gorgeous. They were very popular in the Victorian period.
One thing you have to remember about these plates. The originals were originally made by and painted by master artists and artesians.
During the later part of the 19th C, the earler plates and subjects were so popular, such as Napolean and Marie A., that the copies were beginning to crop up from the lesser than quality sources. Then beginning in the 1900's, when hand painting was replaced by machines. This art was on its way out. However, the fakes began. Thousands of plates were made using the same molds as the originals and second rate artists signing the original artists' name to the plate.
This is the reason to really invest in and collect these plates, you need to know more than just a little about the makers and factories. For example: if someone is trying to sell you a Royal Vienna plate with the likeness of Marie Antoinette, and dates the plate at 1890, the plate is clearly a fake.
Royal Vienna stopped production in the mid 1860s.
It really is a very easy area to study. There were only a handful of top notch factories. The artists can be traced to the factories. So it is not a hard area to learn. There are also a lot of books and information on the internet to help you.

Just recently, I listed for sale this very exquistie Meissen Green Rim Gold Paste Artist Painted Cabinet Plate! This on is a great plate to have in your collection! It is 9.5"dia. It has earned its place in the Drei Katzen Media Spotlight due its elegance and beauty! If you have not seen one of these up close, take a look at this one in my auction on SeeAuctions.com

I have several photos online to show closeups. There are no chips, cracks, or breaks. There are a few marks into the gold gilt. This can be restored very easily by a restorer. These plates normally sell in the 1000.00 - 2000.00 range. I am starting this plate really low...Don't miss your chance to own this wonderful cabinet plate!