Meissen is a town in Germany close to city of Dresden. I had always knew Dresden as famous for its fine porcelains, thought I was not as familiar with the actual source, which is Meissen. Historically it is most famous for being the first in finely crafted porcelain ware. They started the quest to produce such fine piece in order to free themselves from the dependence on foreign, imported pottery (hmm, sounds kind of familiar...) Under the stewardship of Augustus the Strong, and two craftsman-scientists Boettger and Hoeroldt, the workshops of Meissen are the first to achieve success at matching the quality of Far East white porcelain. Unlike the Asian pottery, the Meissen pottery pioneers the European style that emphasize a hard profile with edges and finishes that echo Gothic cathedrals and wood carvings, and even banners and fabrics are modeled with exaggerated crispness. Some pieces don't stand the test of time too well, as their decoration-festooned look appears gaudy to the modern eye the same way portraits of Napoleon with a couple of pounds of medals hanging off his chest would. Some pieces do strike that sublime balance of decorative and poise that makes it a treasure marking timeless imagination and skill at work.
Here is St. Peter holding the keys of the kingdom, standing contrapposto. On first look it is pretty simple, but the detailed added to the robe, the beard, keys, and most importantly the lifelike hands are distinct. Not only that, the details all enhance the fact they are depicting different textures/hardness. Hats off to the worksmanship required to figure out of how to model this in malleable clay and have the firing emphasize all these characteristics properly.
A guided tour through the "Meissen Method" shows the amount of hand labor required to make any piece. They may have created their own supply of fine china, but it is NOT cheap. No matter what you buy, it is so easy to imagine there is a factory going chuga-chuga-chuga spitting out exact copies, quite refreshing to see it all done by hand.
That being said, I did not buy anything there. But the next time I want to shell out 120+ Euros for a sugar bowl and a creamer, I know where to look.
Go see for yourself:
http://www.flickr.com/gp/7404297@N02/Q95sBv
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