Creamer

ARTIST / MAKER: Meissen porcelain factory (manufacturer)
DATE: 1870 (made)
PLACE: Germany (made)
MATERIALS AND TECHNIQUES: Porcelain with applied flowers and foliage painted in polychrome enamels and gilded
COLLECTION NUMBER: 431

Fredrick Augustus I, the Elector of Saxony and founder of the Meissen porcelain manufactory, appointed Johann Joachim Kändler as his court sculptor in 1731. Kändler regarded that ‘all in all, everything the heart desires can be made and created from porcelain’. From his first works, he demonstrated great skill and perseverance in creating complex models for sculpture and decoration, and a year after his arrival at Meissen, he was made master porcelain modeller. In around 1735, Kändler began encrusting porcelain objects with leaves, sculptural flowers and insects. This unusual shaped pot was made during the 19th century, at a time when the manufactory was revisiting this technique, decorated with applied blue and purple flowers with leaves and stems. It would probably have been used as a creamer with a long handle for heating the milk.