Fig. 137.—Lamp-stand.
Höchst, a town situated on the Main, and now in Nassau, belonged to the Electors of Mainz. A manufactory was founded in 1746 by J. C. Göltz and J. F. Clarus, two merchants of Frankfort, assisted by A. von Löwenfinck, but they were unsuccessful, and called in Ringler, of Vienna, who had escaped from the manufactory. During the Electorate of Johann Friedrich Karl, Archbishop of Mainz, their porcelain ranked among the first in Europe. About 1760 the celebrated modeller Melchior was engaged, and some very elegant statuettes and designs for vases, &c., were produced. Melchior left the manufactory about 1785, and his successor, Ries, was not so skilful, and all his figures having disproportionate heads, the so-called “thick-head” period commenced. Christian Gottlieb Kuntze was another celebrated worker in this fabrique. On the invasion of the French under General Custine in 1794, all the materials were sold by auction.
Fig. 138.—Tray and Sucrier.
Frankenthal, in Bavaria. Established in 1754, by Paul Hannong, who, having discovered the secret of hard porcelain, offered it to the royal manufactory at Sèvres, but the authorities not agreeing as to the price, the offer was declined, and they commenced persecuting him—for in that year a decree forbade the making of translucent ware in France except at Sèvres—and Hannong was compelled to go to Frankenthal, leaving his fayence manufactory at Strassburg in charge of his sons. In 1761 the factory was purchased by the Elector Carl Theodore, and it attained great celebrity, which it maintained until he became Elector of Bavaria, in 1777. It then declined, and all the stock and utensils were sold in 1800 and removed to Greinstadt. The following chronogram denotes the year 1775:—
VarIantIbVs · fLosCVLIs · DIVersI · CoLores ·
fabrICæ · sVb · reVIVIsCentIs · soLIs · hVIVs ·
raDIIs · eXVLtantIs ·
In·frankenthaL· ✴
It occurs on a porcelain plate, Fig. 139, having in the centre the initials of Carl Theodore, interlaced and crowned, within a gold star of flaming rays; radiating from this are thirty divisions, and on the border thirty more, all numbered and painted with small bouquets, en camaïeu, of all the various shades of colour employed in the manufactory.
Fig. 139.—Plate.