Royal Plate
Here’s a luxury brand with four centuries of artisanship and royalty imprinted on its DNA. Its founder is a King. Queen Elizabeth II has one.
If Meissen porcelain were human, it would be a newborn. It’s dear and delicate, and a thing of beauty. Pouring over its handpainted, intricate illustrations would leave you in awe of the intricacy and bravura of the handiwork. How does one paint a tiny flower or a red umbrella with so much precision? Then again, if Meissen porcelain were to be another human being, it would be royalty.
When Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip exchanged vows in 1947, Pope Pius XII gave the newlyweds a rare Meissen porcelain chocolate pot with cover and stand dated 1780. Since then, it has become one of the unwritten customaries to give a Meissen item to royal wedding ceremonies, because it speaks of elegance and exclusivity. European royalties and VVIPs especially those from Russia, United Kingdom, Denmark, Spain, among others, collect these items. Even non-Europeans love Meissen. American heiress, philanthropist, and one of the richest women in the world Doris Duke reportedly had a wide collection of fine china sets, including a floral Meissen porcelain dinner service circa 1770.
“All royal houses treasure a piece of Meissen. Museums all over the world have it in their collection. Meissen items always have the highest prices at auctions,” says Meissen director and VP for Asia market Ingo Bade. The brand is now in Philippine shores, available exclusively at Rustan’s Makati. Its showroom houses all things bright and beautiful, delicate and expensive, including porcelain sets, handmade fineries like scarves (P16K), and jewelry (P7M for a necklace with 2,000 diamonds).
Meissen has royalty in its blood. “Our DNA is pure royalty. We were founded by a king, our CEO was a king, our boss was a king,” says Ingo.
Two years after the alchemist Johann Friedrich Bottger discovered the power of kaolin clay, August II or August the Strong, king of Poland and elector of Saxony, founded Meissen, Europe’s most tradition-rich house of fine art and handcrafted luxury.
“Meissen Couture stands for ‘discreet European luxury.’ When you look at our items, our furniture, our scarf, or jewelry, we’re not showing off. They’re not flashy like ‘boom,’” Ingo says in animation, “but they’re very elegant.”
Meissen has accumulated in its archive 10,000 colors, 700,000 molds, and 60,000 designs in over 300 years, which serve as its inspiration. The porcelain designs range from flowers to fruits and Oriental and Arabic aesthetics, which its 237 painters and over 638 employees in Germany painstakingly handpaint and burn, neither once nor twice, but four times to ensure the topmost quality. It does bespoke items, too. Fancy a porcelain necklace with your name on it?
In Meissen headquarters, newbie painters and sculptors undergo extensive and rigorous training before finally joining the masters club. Ingo says painters spend four years in school, three years in-house, and only after seven years will the masters call them as apprentice. This allows them to paint figures like birds on pillows and scarves. There are artists that specialize on birds, flowers, animals, people, fruits, and Egyptian arts but only after 10 years will they be considered “real artists.” Meanwhile, sculptors are only accepted as masters after 13 years of training. Normally, it takes two weeks to two years (or more) to finish a product, depending on its intricacy.
Author Robert E. Röntgen writes in his book The Book of Meissen that, “Working with porcelain is quite different from working with wood or metal. Everything has to be slightly exaggerated.” This is because the clay contracts about one-sixth during drying and firing. He writes in addition, “Many famous sculptors have tried their hands at porcelain, but only a few succeeded.”
China mass-produces porcelain and other luxury items. It seems to be the new business model in a world that wants everything fast and cheap. Ingo says they don’t and they won’t even mass-produce. There’s a rare, fine piece Meissen porcelain jewelry box for example that is only produced twice a year. The brand creates 50 to 75 pieces max worldwide. Nothing more. “This is what’s pitiful. A lot of people have forgotten about craftsmanship, the love for each piece. The appreciation is gone. China, which is known for their arts, has lost their technique because they are mass-producing. This is not what we are,” says Ingo.
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