Cup and Saucer

The first European factory to make hard-paste porcelain according to traditional Chinese methods was at Meissen in Saxony. Anxious to guard the secret of making porcelain, the Saxon authorities made it difficult for workers to leave Meissen. Still, some of them managed to get to Vienna in 1719, where they were employed at the factory founded by the court official Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier.

The Meissen and Du Paquier factories competed with and influenced one another, but Du Paquier porcelain exhibits distinct qualities of its own: denser and more whimsical decoration, a preference for russet and violet hues, and particularly fine Laub- und Bandel-werk (leaf and scrollwork) decoration—interlaced bands and scrolls alternating with cartouches containing small scenes. The factory was incredibly successful but Du Paquier, facing financial difficulties and the expiration of his imperial patent for making porcelain, sold the factory to the Austrian state in 1744.

The chinoiserie (Chinese-inspired) decoration on this cup and saucer includes fantastic trees on which different colored flowers bloom; whimsical garden pavilions; and odd rock formations rendered as almost abstract forms, with emphasis on their voids and fissures.