Sugar Caster with Cover (one of a pair)
Medium
Hard-paste porcelain, polychrome enamels, and gilding
Dimensions
19.7 × 8.9 × 7.7 cm (7 3/4 × 3 1/2 × 3 in.)
Classification
ceramics
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
107668
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
By the 17th century, many European nations were trading heavily in the Orient, importing such products as tea, chocolate, furniture, silk, and porcelain. The discovery in the 18th century of the secret method the Chinese used to make porcelain was one of the most important achievements of the royal Meissen porcelain factory near Dresden. The tureen from this centerpiece and stand with a pair of sugar casters, designed by Meissen's chief modeler, Johann Joachim Kändler, would have been filled wit...
About the Artist
Meissen Porcelain Manufactory
The Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, established on June 6, 1710, by Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in the Albrechtsburg castle at Meissen near Dresden, marked Europe's breakthrough in producing true hard-paste porcelain. Building on experiments by physicist Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, who perfected the formula using local...