Porcelain Manufactory Ludwigsburg
| Schlossmanufaktur Ludwigsburg GmbH
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|---|---|
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| legal form | GmbH |
| founding | 1758 |
| resolution | 2016 |
| Seat | Ludwigsburg , Germany |
| sales | 500,000 EUR (2008) |
| Branch | Ceramics |
The Porcelain Manufactory Ludwigsburg was founded on April 5, 1758 as "Herzoglich-ächte Porcelaine-Fabrique" by Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg by decree in Ludwigsburg . The company that last traded under the name of Schlossmanufaktur Ludwigsburg GmbH was founded in 1948. In 2016 the company was dissolved due to insolvency.
Purpose of establishment
Porcelain belonged to every elegant table in the 18th century, was a sought-after collector's item and a representative gift. Duke Carl Eugen needed enormous amounts of the fragile white gold for his glamorous absolutist court holding . Carl Eugen financed the luxury of his own porcelain factory from his private box . For years he subsidized the manufacture with 1,000 guilders a month.
history
prehistory
Porcelain was rare in Europe and usually had to be imported from East Asia until the 18th century. Research into porcelain began as early as the 17th century. The first manufactories were founded in Delft in the middle of the 17th century, although they initially produced rather rough goods. De Porceleyne Fles , also known as Royal Delft, founded in 1653, is the only major of these factories to survive to this day.
In the German-speaking area, the first porcelain manufactory was founded in Meißen in 1708 , followed by others in Vienna (1718), Höchst (1746), Fürstenberg and Nymphenburg (both 1747), Berlin (1751) and Frankenthal (1755).
In France, the Chantilly (1725) and Sèvres (originally in Vincennes Castle , 1738) factories were established in the same period ; in England in 1743 the Manufacture of Chelsea .
In 1729, Duke Eberhard Ludwig of Württemberg received an offer from Elias father, a glass and mirror maker, "to make porcelain that is as nice as having it in Saxony" .
Under Duke Carl Alexander , the father of Carl Eugen, the first attempts at porcelain production were undertaken in Württemberg, namely by Johann Philipp Weisbrodt . In 1736 the ducal financial representative Joseph Süß Oppenheimer had to provide 2000 guilders for the production of porcelain. With the death of Carl Alexander, these attempts were initially discontinued, but were resumed from 1751. In 1751 the Calw trading company von Zahn und Dörtenbach received a ducal privilege to manufacture porcelain, in 1757 this privilege was passed on to the Heilbronn Boniface Christoph Häcker . Both the Calwer trading company and Häcker failed due to technical difficulties and insufficient financial resources.
In 1758, Duke Carl Eugen finally issued the decree with which the Ludwigsburg Manufactory was founded without giving any reason - as the last of the top manufacturers in Europe that was still influenced by the Rococo .
Beginning and growth
The months after the founding decree were also marked by adversity. There were still difficulties in the preparation of the raw material, the clay. Because of the initial problems in production, different kilns were experimented with. There were also recurring bottlenecks in wood procurement; In one fire alone, over 40 m³ of wood was consumed. On top of all of this came leadership intrigues.
The turning point finally brought the hiring of Joseph Jakob Ringler (1730–1804). On February 16, 1759 he was appointed second director of the manufactory. Ringler was an experienced arcanist who had already helped several factories to produce on his wanderings. However, he never fully disclosed his extensive knowledge of porcelain mixing and firing technology. Since Duke Carl Eugen attached great importance to a very high level of artistic achievement and was prepared to reward it accordingly, renowned specialists were appointed to Ludwigsburg from the start. In March 1759 the manufactory had 21 permanent employees. Their salaries ranged from 12 guilders per month for clay cutters to 75 guilders for ringers. A quote from the cashier at the time, Wider, has been handed down for March 1759: Serenissimus (the duke) enjoyed ( or enjoyed ) figures that were rare at the time. That is why many bosses were hired.
The manufacture developed rapidly and reached its first heyday after just a few years. In 1760/70 the number of employees was around 160 to 180 porcelain artisans . Among them, the porcelain painters were by far the majority because every single piece had to be hand-painted in a time-consuming process. On the other hand, once made, the molders' forms could be used again and again for impressions. In addition to its permanent employees, the manufacture also employed a number of so-called house painters who painted pieces from home.
The growth was facilitated in the early years by the hindrance of Meissen in the Seven Years War (1756–1763).
Artistic heyday
In terms of artistic quality, Ludwigsburg could easily be compared with other leading manufacturers in Europe. The particular strength of the Ludwigsburg manufactory was figurative representations. Ludwigsburg, as the last of the major manufacturers to be founded, was not as strongly attached to the late Rococo era as the others. Thus, early on, even before 1765, stylistic features of the rising classicism could prevail in the figurative works.
Gottlieb Friedrich Riedel (1724–1784), who was hired on May 15, 1759 as chief painter, stands out among the artists of that time . From his previous job in Meißen, he also brought many design elements with him and also worked as a modeller , paint canist and designer for tableware production, i.e. de facto as the artistic director of the manufactory.
One of his most famous designs is the luxurious Giovanelli-Martinelli service , which was executed with lavish flower and landscape paintings and rich gilding. With this extensive breakfast and toilet service, created between 1762 and 1763, Duke Carl Eugen thanked Count Giovanelli for his hospitality during Carl Eugen's trips to Italy. Riedel's scale pattern created in 1765 , one of the first fully relief porcelain patterns for coffee, tea and chocolate services, also became famous . Riedel refrained from painting large areas in order to let the shape and structure work all by themselves. The other works of this versatile artist included magnificent lidded vases and figurines as well as bird, flower, figure and landscape paintings. In terms of style, Riedel is completely absorbed in the heavy splendor of the Rococo.
Another excellent modeler was Johann Christian Wilhelm Beyer (1725–1796), who was model master at the porcelain factory from 1759 to 1767. For him, it was primarily about visualizing difficult sequences of movements, such as twists and turns, which he was particularly successful in the music solos . The seven-part group of figures created in 1763 is one of the most important of the works created in the porcelain factory. It consists of a singer, guitarist, violin player, French horn player, cello player, spinet player and a coffee drinker in the same style. The music solos are still in the rococo tradition, but already show classical influences. Beyer, who in his further development turned even more to classicism, can be seen as a kind of artistic antithesis to Riedel.
The Venetian Fair is a special kind of collection . It reproduces the colorful market activity of the fair of the same name, held every year by Carl Eugen based on the Italian model , from traders and market stalls to craftsmen and tools to tavern scenes and brawls. Various modelers created the more than 250 figures, about 7 cm high. With this detailed depiction of bourgeois life, the porcelain sculpture, which had previously been more oriented towards court life, received new impulses.
Gottlieb Friedrich Kirschner and Albrecht Joseph Christian Wilhelm Walcher deserve special mention among the numerous painters . Both painted flowers in bold colors and brilliant luminosity. Many of the particularly good Ludwigsburg porcelain painters left signatures on their pieces - small and in a hidden place, because these signatures were not wanted by the manufactory. That is why 60 of the around 200 painters known by name can be assigned to individual pieces by name today.
Temporary decline
In 1775 Carl Eugen moved his residence from Ludwigsburg back to Stuttgart . With him, in addition to the court and the trades that were dependent on it, large parts of the military left Ludwigsburg; the decline of the porcelain factory began.
The decline was also caused by the fact that the manufactory neglected artistic innovation in tableware production. The dominant in this area Riedel could not break away from the traditions of the Rococo. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Ludwigsburg crockery looked outdated and found fewer and fewer buyers. In addition, there was the general artistic decline in flower painting, not only in Ludwigsburg, but also at the other large manufacturers. Fewer and fewer first-class artists wanted to deal with it, so that tableware with floral motifs sank almost to the rank of mass-produced goods.
From 1797 the manufacture was supported by King Friedrich I of Württemberg , who instead of the gray china clay from Alpirsbach, which had been in use until then, even had white china clay from France - along with some French experts. The manufactory experienced another brief heyday around 1806, but it ended again with Friedrich's death. In 1824, King Wilhelm I of Württemberg closed the factory for economic reasons. The collection of models with 450 drawings and numerous engravings became the property of the Royal Cabinet of Prints and Drawings .
Recovery
Porzellanmanufaktur Alt-Ludwigsburg GmbH was founded on February 10th, 1919. It produced utility porcelain and did not work in the tradition of the "ducal" manufactory. In July 1920, after a lost legal dispute over the company name with the Württemberg Porcelain Manufactory Schorndorf, the company changed its name to Ludwigsburg Porcelain Manufactory AG . Initially, the company purchased white porcelain from manufacturers in Thuringia and the Upper Palatinate, e.g. B. Müller & Co (Volkstedt-Rudolstadt), C&A Carstens (Blankenhain), Johann Haviland (Waldershof) and CM Hutschenreuther (Hohenberg ad Eger) and only painted this. From January 1921 onwards, the company began producing its own porcelain in a newly built factory in Ludwigsburg. Due to the strong competitive pressure, the company soon failed: On June 18, 1925, the general meeting decided to liquidate. In 1927 the business was finally stopped.
In 1926 Otto Wanner-Brandt acquired the trademark rights of the Herzoglich / Königlichen Manufaktur until 1976. In 1948 Otto Wanner-Brandt successfully re-founded the Porzellan-Manufaktur Ludwigsburg GmbH . The old forms and motifs have been reissued, for example parts of the music solos or the Venetian mass . A classic is the scale pattern , which was made exclusively in Ludwigsburg.
Since 1967 the porcelain factory has been housed in the Ludwigsburg residential palace . On June 13, 1994, the manufactory received the foundation prize of the Württembergische Hypothekenbank for art and science for its services to the preservation and continuation of traditional porcelain art .
Porcelain manufacture from 1990
Production and program
In order to preserve porcelain as a form of sophisticated lifestyle and as a cultural asset of increasing value, the porcelain manufactory had made it its business to preserve historical working techniques. Until production was discontinued in 2010, each piece was made individually by hand, from molding and embossing to plastering to painting and gilding, which was done free-hand, without the use of stencils or printing templates.
Since 1994, the porcelain manufactory's range has been expanded to include new decors, modern designs and artist editions created in its own studios, for example by Princess Diane von Orléans , Duchess of Württemberg, or Friedrich Hechelmann . Hechelmann's tea service shows a mythical-naturalistic fantasy world: the shepherd god Pan, surrounded by mythical plants, insects and amphibians. The decor line Ginkgo Biloba , a homage to Goethe, is painted with ginkgo leaves and lines of poetry in the modeled handwriting of Goethe.
The offer of the sales gallery, which was last located in the residential palace Ludwigsburg, included service as well as decorative china and gifts. In addition to candlesticks, vases, boxes and bowls, this also included figures of all kinds, for example musicians, dancers or animal figures such as parrots and cockatoos. Furthermore, services were made to order, taking into account the client's individual wishes.
These products were also manufactured under the self-commitment to manual labor anchored in the company's statutes in 1995. An artistic advisory board made up of porcelain experts and art historians watched over the high quality of modern paintings and the faithful replicas of historical pieces, for example the three musical solo figures, violin player , French horn player and spinet player , which were included in the program again .
For a time the porcelain factory in Ludwigsburg switched to water-soluble paints. This benefited the health of the employees, as they were no longer forced to work in turpentine vapors, as was previously the practice in porcelain painting. However, this technique did not work and was abandoned after a while.
Since 2004, the history of Ludwigsburg porcelain has also been documented in the new ceramic museum. Historical pieces from the Ludwigsburg porcelain factory are rarely found in the antique trade. The porcelain factory based in the Ludwigsburg residential palace was the only one in Baden-Württemberg. Until 2008 it was one of the smallest in Europe, but one of the most important manufacturers.
Trademark
The historical manufactory marked its works with many different symbols. This contributes significantly to the datability of the pieces. The current registered trademark of Porzellanmanufaktur Ludwigsburg has been used as a blue mark on the underside of each individual piece since 1947 , along with a letter abbreviation, the painter's mark . Referring to the first symbol of the historical manufactory, used from 1759/1760, it shows the crown of the House of Württemberg and underneath the mirrored double-C Duke Carl-Eugen. After 1947 the “Ludwigsburg” brand was added. Further trademarks were registered for special editions.
Economic development and bankruptcy
Until 2004, the state of Baden-Württemberg, the city of Ludwigsburg, the Baden-Württembergische Landesbank, Berthold Leibinger and Carl Herzog von Württemberg were involved in the Ludwigsburg porcelain manufacture .
Like many comparable manufactories, the manufactory was a subsidy company. The losses were borne by the shareholders: in 2002 the shareholders subsidized the manufacture with over two million euros. Hope arose when the luxury goods manufacturer EganaGoldpfeil acquired 87.5% of the shares in the manufactory in 2004 . Its global sales network should ensure that the manufactory's products would be known and buyers beyond their home region. The city of Ludwigsburg continued to hold the remaining 12.5% of the shares.
However, after EganaGoldpfeil filed for bankruptcy, the porcelain manufacturer also had to register insolvency at the Ludwigsburg district court on August 29, 2008. After months of searching for a buyer for the company, a purchase agreement was concluded in early 2009 with Lucas, a holding company with Russian investors. From February 16, 2009 the company was run under the name Schlossmanufaktur Ludwigsburg GmbH by the Russian managing director Maxim Gennel. In March 2014, the porcelain factory again filed for bankruptcy. In October 2015, the closure of the porcelain factory was announced, production ended in January 2016.
literature
- See also the list of porcelain manufacturers and manufacturers
- Leo Balet : Ludwigsburg porcelain (figure sculpture). Stuttgart 1911.
- Hans Christ; Otto Lossen: Ludwigsburg porcelain figures. Stuttgart 1921.
- Hans Dieter Flach: Ludwigsburg porcelain. Faience, earthenware, tiles, tiles. A manual. Arnoldsche Art Publishers, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-925369-30-9 .
- Hans Dieter Flach: Painting on Ludwigsburg porcelain. 1759 to around 1850. Schnell + Steiner, Regensburg 2005, ISBN 3-7954-1701-5 .
- Hans Ulrich Jordan: Ludwigsburg Porcelain 1919–1927: History - People - Production. The Second Ludwigsburg Porcelain Manufactory. Verlag IMW, Ludwigsburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-00-027068-0 .
Web links
- Schlossmanufaktur Ludwigsburg
- History on planet knowledge
- Budget 2005 and 2006 for Baden-Württemberg - Section 2006, Ministry of Finance (PDF file; 733 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Porcelain Manufactory: This year sales should grow by 40 percent , Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung, March 20, 2009
- ↑ Filed for bankruptcy. Difficult times for Porzellan-Manufaktur Ludwigsburg GmbH. Bietigheimer Zeitung, August 30, 2008, online
- ↑ Wilfried Hahn: Nobody wants the manufacture. Ludwigsburger Kreiszeitung , August 30, 2008, page 7.
- ↑ Kathrin Haasis: Schlossmanufaktur does not pay. Stuttgarter Zeitung , April 27, 2013, p. 24.
- ↑ Hans-Peter Jans: From matryoshkas made of porcelain and rich gold decorations. Ludwigsburg newspaper, February 9, 2009.
- ^ Website of Schlossmanufaktur Ludwigsburg GmbH , visited on March 19, 2009.
- ^ Ludwigsburg: The lock manufacture is insolvent. Stuttgarter Zeitung , March 25, 2014.
- ↑ Hilke Lorenz: The status of the insolvency proceedings. In: Stuttgarter Zeitung . March 9, 2016, accessed March 19, 2016 .