DOI issue:
King, William: Bayreuth Porcelain
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.57095#0025
BAYREUTH PORCELAIN
BY WILLIAM KING
The problems of Bayreuth porcelain were first stated
and discussed in detail by Dr. Gustav E. Pazaurek in
I925'm Deutsche Fay ence=undPorzellan=Hausmaler
pp. 250 to 275. He illustrates two cups inthe Franks
Collection in the British Museum, signed respec-
tively “Bayreuth, Fee: Jucht” and “Metzsch 1748
Bayr”, but the painting on these is not related to
my knowledge to that on other specimens of porce-
lain, with the exception of a similar cup signed by
Jucht in the Bayrisches Nationalmuseum at Munich.
There exist, however, two other signed examples,
to which Dr. Pazaurek draws attention, and round
these may be grouped a whole family, three members
of which in the British Museum are here illustrated.
The key pieces are a cup in the Landesgewerbemu-
seum at Stuttgart and another in the Dosquet Col-
lection at Berlin, and they are marked with the
monogram JFM of the painter Johann Friedrich
Metzsch.
The London examples are two cups and saucers and
a bowl. The cup and saucer on the left of fig. 1 are
painting in black monochrome with shipping and
rural scenes surrounded by a red line; inside the cup
and round the saucers are borders ingoldof symme-
trical scrollwork of a distinctive kind, which is in-
deed one of the hallmarks of Bayreuth painting. The
two other pieces are painted in the same gay palette
of colours, which include violet, red, blue, yellow
and various shades of green, but the medallions on the
cup and saucer (fig. 1, right) are in black monochrome.
On the reverse of this cup are two confronted birds
of fantastic character, perched on symmetrical scroll-
work with branches in their mouths and Banking a
basket offruit. Themedallion inside the bowl (fig.6)
is probably symbolic of Hope; those outside re-
present respectively an amorous encounter (fig. 2),
a couple carousing and another couple regarding
an object, which may be a picture; all four are
flanked by floral cornucopiae and surmounted by
a vase between two birds. The masks on the second
cup and saucer and the horizontal shading surroun-
ding the medallions are characteristic features of
Bayreuth painting. These objects are Nos. 59, 60
and 48 in the catalogue of the Franks Collection
and until the publication of Dr. Pazaurek’s mono
graph they were called Meissen. One of the cups,
that painted in black monochrome, is actually of
Meissen porcelain, since it bears the AEsculapius
mark, but that all were decorated at Bayreuth is
clear from their similarity to the JFM marked cups
and to attested specimens of Bayreuth faience and
stoneware.
I cannot regard it as proved that any of these pieces
was actually made at Bayreuth; the similarity of
their body to that of ordinary Meissen suggests that
they may rather have been imported from Meissen
or Vienna for decoration at Bayreuth. Of the two
marked cups in the Franks Collection the Jucht-
marked cup is unquestionably an importation, but
the Metzsch-marked cup with its sanded foot may
possibly be an experimental piece made at Bayreuth.
It is certain that porcelain was never made there in
any quantity, and the loose way in which the word
porcelain was used in the eighteenth Century to
denote any kind of earthenware or stoneware makes
it hazardous to argue from Contemporary accounts.
Dr. Pazaurek assigns objects of this dass to the de-
cade between 1740 and 1750, but I cannot help
feeling that they may be slightly earlier in date. He
illustrates (fig. 222) a faience tankard decorated in
a similar style and dated 1739, andif, asis probable,
they were painted by or under the influence of
Metzsch, who left the factory in 1748, they7betray
an artlessness of colouring and treatment that
suggests that they are considerably earlier workthan
the highly sophisticated painting on the British
Museum cup dated 1748. The symmetrical baroque
scrollwork is of a type that would certainly at Meis-
sen have been out of date by 1740. The date of
Metzsch’s arrival at Bayreuth does not seem to be
recorded, but in 1731 he was working as a Hausmaler
at Dresden.
There is yet another family of objects that Dr. Paz-
aurek would like to ascribe to Bayreuth, but here
I cannot feel that he is on firm ground. These pieces
are ofeoarse porcelain with greyish-greenglaze, which
has an Italian look, and although they are painted
in the same colours that we find on the others, the
treatment is vastly different. The decoration is
heraldic and floral, and an imposing example is the
339
43
BY WILLIAM KING
The problems of Bayreuth porcelain were first stated
and discussed in detail by Dr. Gustav E. Pazaurek in
I925'm Deutsche Fay ence=undPorzellan=Hausmaler
pp. 250 to 275. He illustrates two cups inthe Franks
Collection in the British Museum, signed respec-
tively “Bayreuth, Fee: Jucht” and “Metzsch 1748
Bayr”, but the painting on these is not related to
my knowledge to that on other specimens of porce-
lain, with the exception of a similar cup signed by
Jucht in the Bayrisches Nationalmuseum at Munich.
There exist, however, two other signed examples,
to which Dr. Pazaurek draws attention, and round
these may be grouped a whole family, three members
of which in the British Museum are here illustrated.
The key pieces are a cup in the Landesgewerbemu-
seum at Stuttgart and another in the Dosquet Col-
lection at Berlin, and they are marked with the
monogram JFM of the painter Johann Friedrich
Metzsch.
The London examples are two cups and saucers and
a bowl. The cup and saucer on the left of fig. 1 are
painting in black monochrome with shipping and
rural scenes surrounded by a red line; inside the cup
and round the saucers are borders ingoldof symme-
trical scrollwork of a distinctive kind, which is in-
deed one of the hallmarks of Bayreuth painting. The
two other pieces are painted in the same gay palette
of colours, which include violet, red, blue, yellow
and various shades of green, but the medallions on the
cup and saucer (fig. 1, right) are in black monochrome.
On the reverse of this cup are two confronted birds
of fantastic character, perched on symmetrical scroll-
work with branches in their mouths and Banking a
basket offruit. Themedallion inside the bowl (fig.6)
is probably symbolic of Hope; those outside re-
present respectively an amorous encounter (fig. 2),
a couple carousing and another couple regarding
an object, which may be a picture; all four are
flanked by floral cornucopiae and surmounted by
a vase between two birds. The masks on the second
cup and saucer and the horizontal shading surroun-
ding the medallions are characteristic features of
Bayreuth painting. These objects are Nos. 59, 60
and 48 in the catalogue of the Franks Collection
and until the publication of Dr. Pazaurek’s mono
graph they were called Meissen. One of the cups,
that painted in black monochrome, is actually of
Meissen porcelain, since it bears the AEsculapius
mark, but that all were decorated at Bayreuth is
clear from their similarity to the JFM marked cups
and to attested specimens of Bayreuth faience and
stoneware.
I cannot regard it as proved that any of these pieces
was actually made at Bayreuth; the similarity of
their body to that of ordinary Meissen suggests that
they may rather have been imported from Meissen
or Vienna for decoration at Bayreuth. Of the two
marked cups in the Franks Collection the Jucht-
marked cup is unquestionably an importation, but
the Metzsch-marked cup with its sanded foot may
possibly be an experimental piece made at Bayreuth.
It is certain that porcelain was never made there in
any quantity, and the loose way in which the word
porcelain was used in the eighteenth Century to
denote any kind of earthenware or stoneware makes
it hazardous to argue from Contemporary accounts.
Dr. Pazaurek assigns objects of this dass to the de-
cade between 1740 and 1750, but I cannot help
feeling that they may be slightly earlier in date. He
illustrates (fig. 222) a faience tankard decorated in
a similar style and dated 1739, andif, asis probable,
they were painted by or under the influence of
Metzsch, who left the factory in 1748, they7betray
an artlessness of colouring and treatment that
suggests that they are considerably earlier workthan
the highly sophisticated painting on the British
Museum cup dated 1748. The symmetrical baroque
scrollwork is of a type that would certainly at Meis-
sen have been out of date by 1740. The date of
Metzsch’s arrival at Bayreuth does not seem to be
recorded, but in 1731 he was working as a Hausmaler
at Dresden.
There is yet another family of objects that Dr. Paz-
aurek would like to ascribe to Bayreuth, but here
I cannot feel that he is on firm ground. These pieces
are ofeoarse porcelain with greyish-greenglaze, which
has an Italian look, and although they are painted
in the same colours that we find on the others, the
treatment is vastly different. The decoration is
heraldic and floral, and an imposing example is the
339
43