Meissen Porcelain - Tableware Patterns

Tableware Patterns

Böttger early foresaw the production of tableware, and the first services were made in the 1720s. Initial services were plain, but Kaendler soon introduced matching decorations. Kaendler also produced the 1745 "New Cutout" pattern, characterized by a wavy edge cut.

The famous Schwanenservice ("Swan Service") was made in 1737-43, for the manufactory's director, Count Heinrich von Brühl; it eventually numbered more than a thousand pieces. At the end of World War II, the pieces of the Swan Service were scattered amongst collectors and museums. Yet, with the moulds still available, the pattern continues to be made today.

The Blue Onion pattern has been in production for close to three centuries. It was basically designed by Höroldt in 1739 and is probably inspired by a Chinese bowl from the Kangxi period. Widely popular, the pattern has been copied extensively by over sixty companies; some of those competitors have even used the word Meissen as a marking. But the pattern became so popular and widespread that the German Supreme Court in 1926 ruled that the term Meissen Zwiebelmuster ("Meissen Onion Pattern", only in English have the pomegranates depicted ever been likened to onions. A more precise term would have been "Meissen Hyacinth Pattern") was in the public domain.

A series of "Court Dragon" and "Red Dragon" tableware patterns features Chinese dragons, generally in underglaze red with gilt details flying around the rim of the plate and with a medallion in the center of the cavetto. A version of this pattern was used in Hitler's Kehlsteinhaus retreat.

Other popular patterns still in production include the Purple Rose pattern and the Vine-leaf pattern.