It is not appropriate, so it seems to me, that a delicate painting of a beautiful girl should be made on the dinner-plate upon which you are to put your squash or your pudding; such delicate penciling should be devoted to art pure and simple—to “fine art,” as it is called. Such paintings on china cannot be put to use; they are too costly, and therefore they fail to be either useful art or fine art.
Now, the tendency of European porcelain-decoration is always in this “fine-art” direction, and is always false; that of Oriental porcelain is always in the useful-art direction, and therefore true.
The pure white porcelain of Meissen was not at first sold, but was reserved for the king’s use, or for presents to distinguished personages. In later times it was sold, and is still; and the pieces so disposed of have a scratch cut across the mark, to indicate that they were not painted in the factory.
The works at Meissen grew in importance and in public favor up to the time of the Seven Years’ War (1756 to 1763), when Frederick the Great overran Saxony, broke up the Meissen factory, and removed the workmen to Berlin, where he established the Prussian potteries, which afterward came to be of great consequence.
An English merchant visited the works at Meissen in 1750, and found “about seven hundred men employed, most of whom have not above ten German crowns a month, and the highest wages are forty, so that the annual expense is not estimated above eighty thousand crowns. This manufactory being entirely for the king’s account, he sells yearly to the value of one hundred and fifty thousand crowns, and sometimes two hundred thousand crowns (thirty-five thousand pounds sterling[14]), besides the magnificent presents he occasionally makes, and the great quantity he preserves for his own use.”
The best period of Dresden production is estimated as being from about 1730 to 1756. During this period the works of Kändler were made, and also the paintings of Lindenir, which are much valued. In Fig. 126 is to be seen a fine plate with a pierced border, in the centre of which are painted birds, in the style introduced by Lindenir. The other pieces shown in Fig. 126 are excellent examples of good Meissen porcelain; the cup and saucer, showing Cupids, is most delicately and elaborately painted. Among those who painted somewhat upon the Dresden china was Angelica Kauffmann, whose figures are pervaded with a certain grace and refinement always charming.
