Trier Porcelain Manufactory

The Benedictine Abbey of St. Martin in Trier. Unknown artist. Before 1794. Oil on canvas, 37.5 × 50 cm. Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier, Inv. 79.9 (photo from the Trier 2000 catalog, p. 16).

Pair of amphorae vases, painted according to motifs by Angelika Kauffmann (punishment of Cupid), early 19th century. Inv no. VIII 642a + b, City Museum Simeonstift Trier.

Stephan Hawich, portrait of Peter Marx, around 1816/17, oil on canvas, 145 × 117 cm, Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier, inv. No. III 264.

Incised marks on Trier porcelain, from the catalog “Citizens and foreigners who care for elegance”, Trier, 2000.

Coffee service with a matt blue background and a flower bud frieze (shape type 1), Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier, inv. No. VIII 197.

Sugar bowl from a service with purple stock (shape type 1), on the front: “Ruine des Röm. Imp. Palastes ”, on the reverse:“ Liebfrauen Kirche in Trier ”, Stadtmuseum Simeonstift Trier, inv. No. VIII 192b

Coffee service, white background, painted with views of Trier and trophies (form type 2), City Museum Simeonstift Trier, inv. No. VIII 194.

The Trier Porcelain Manufactory (founded 1807 / 1809 ; decommissioned in 1821 ) produced almost exclusively Coffee services, ornamental Assen and vases. She didn't have a brand. Her hand-painted porcelain was and is particularly appreciated.

Establishment of the manufactory

To 1807, the producer Christian Joseph Deuster started (born November 3, 1766 Bundenbach, † 16 June 1823 in Mendig Mendig top) with the construction of a porcelain - manufactory in Trier , then capital of the French Saar departments . He had previously operated a porcelain factory in Paris , but filed for bankruptcy in 1804 . In the Moselle town he leased the buildings of the former Benedictine monastery of St. Martin , which had been sold as state property as part of the secularization of 1803, as a place of manufacture and residence . After a tour of the facility by the mayor of Trier, Anton Joseph Recking , the city council approved the re-establishment in October 1809. One month later, the French government, which is concerned with economic development, represented by Prefect Maximilien Xavier Keppler, issued the necessary operating permit. At that time, however, production at the factory operating under the name “Manufacture à St. Martin près Trèves” had already started for a long time. Deuster benefited from his Parisian networks, obtained the high quality kaolin from Limoges as before and also brought experienced porcelain workers to the new location.

The French public company

To increase the capital, the company was converted into a stock corporation in 1810 . a. Prefect Keppler joined as an investor. Deuster, who was unable to subscribe for shares due to lack of money, from then on acted as technical director and managed production with around 80 workers and a number of trainees in the factory site that had since been purchased. With two kilns and two muffle ovens for baking the colors, around 150,000 pieces of porcelain were produced annually and mainly exported, also through our own sales warehouses in Leipzig and Hamburg. In 1813 Deuster quit his job in Trier to try a porcelain and stoneware factory in Mendig. In his place, the porcelain specialist Joseph Maurice Coeur d'Acier, who had also previously worked in Paris, joined the company. In the same year 1813 there was a second share issue; The group of shareholders now also included the Trier entrepreneur and city councilor Peter Marx (1763–1831), who was to determine the fate of the factory a little later. During the far-reaching political upheavals that came with the change from French to Prussian rule in 1814, production initially continued to be limited. In March 1815, however, the stock corporation dissolved and commissioned Marx to auction the factory, including the goods and raw materials.

The company in Prussian times

Peter Marx, who had made it to large estates and considerable wealth during the secularization through skillful acquisitions and as a broker of real estate from church and aristocratic property, bought the entire factory complex at auction in August 1815 and, from April 1816, continued production at the “Porzellan-Manufaktur zu St . Martin near Trier ”. Passau has now joined Limoges as a kaolin supplier; In addition, as already tested during the French phase, raw materials close to the location (Gerolstein region) were used. The company soon employed 50 people again and was supported by government subsidies such as the waiver of import sales taxes and cheaper firewood. But the new bloom only lasted five years. Production came to a standstill at the beginning of 1821. In this decline, mistakes in the management of the owner Marx, who was alien to the industry and who was claimed by various companies, were likely to have played a part, as did the competition of the cheaper earthenware, which could also be decorated using the transfer printing process instead of hand painting. A company archive has not survived.

Manufactory products

In Trier, coffee services, decorative cups and vases were produced almost exclusively, as shown by a company form listing the “most corrent items” and the traditional items. A coffee service at that time comprised 17 parts: coffee pot, teapot, milk or water jug, sugar bowl, 12 cups and saucers as well as a "rinsing bowl" (the coffee grounds were swiveled out of the cups at the table). According to the French model, cake or dessert plates were not included. Following the product lines of well-known manufacturers, a relatively strict classical style (L'Empire) was mixed with elements of the early Biedermeier period (restoration) to create a striking variety of shapes; Three types of shape were used for the services alone: ​​the tall, slender coffee pots, with and without a cylindrical neck, were accompanied by lower teapots in the shape of cylinders, and more rarely pears. There were handle variants with a C-shaped curve and cuff or with a plastic human head and palmettes at the base, each of which was also adopted for the tall milk jug with a wide bowl. The urn-shaped sugar bowls had either a convex or convex lid and mascarons or rings as handles. Mainly cylindrical cups with spur handles, but also troughed cups with ear handles were among the coffee services. There were five types of shape for the individually offered decorative cups, including a tall cup shape with a volute handle for the popular hot chocolate. With the vases, too, two types of shape, the lush amphora vase with swan handles and the crater vase with curved handles halfway up the vessel, met customer requirements.

Attribution Criteria

The very similar design language of many manufacturers makes it difficult to ascribe unmarked porcelain to Trier. It is therefore mainly based on the provenance from the property of long-established Trier families, etc. a. from the environment of the entrepreneur Marx. In a precise comparison with such evidence and illustrations in the older literature, which are still numerous today, other parts can also be reliably identified. The so-called "incised marks" under the bottom of the vessel, letters and symbols set in front of the firing, which may indicate that the manufactory was turning, serve as important further criteria. On pieces from Trier there are the letters B, E, F, G (or 6), H, J, K, L, M, S, V, W as well as crossed-out circles, a lying number 8 or three passes. Last but not least, the painting, for example with views from Trier, provides decisive clues.

View china and other decors

According to the company form of the porcelain factory, the buyers could choose between white goods, white gold medium goods (gold rim and / or gold ornaments in the form of stylized leaves and flowers or scattered gold dots or gold stars) and goods hand-painted in overglaze color. In the case of the last-mentioned “painting”, the focus shifted from the initially preferred mythological motifs to realistic representations. Under the aegis of Marx, entire services were created, but also differently shaped individual cups that gave expression to the enthusiasm for antiquity as well as the romantic, transfigured encounter with nature. In gold-rimmed reserves, they mainly showed the Roman buildings of the city of Trier: Porta Nigra, basilica, Kaiserthermen, amphitheater, Roman bridge and Igeler column, which at that time were subject to much-noticed archaeological investigations and exposures. But also the important churches and buildings of later epochs as well as the views and excursion destinations from the area around the city were represented in large numbers. With this, the porcelain manufacturer delivered a complete sightseeing program for early Moselle travelers, even before illustrated travel literature was on the market. The manufactory's products, which were praised as “tasteful and splendid”, were also popular with the city's residents, an appreciation that continues unabated to this day and determines the prices of the porcelains, which have become rare collector's items. In addition to this Trier specialty, the porcelain factory also made dishes with fantasy landscapes and / or figural paintings, for example services with native and exotic animals in landscape sections or genre and theater scenes on vases. There was also no lack of flower painting, including the services “with cornflowers”, which were made in many places and also in Trier, and finally the gift mugs decorated with symbols of friendship.

Manufactory painter

The parts made in the manufactory did not bear any painter's signature. In keeping with the usual practice, factory employees in Trier were not authorized to label their work with their names or other symbols. Nevertheless, some artists can be identified. For the French period of the company, the “best” painter was a “Baron de…” who can no longer be identified today, to whom historical and mythological motifs, also based on models by the famous painter Angelika Kauffmann , are attributed. Other factory painters were the French Jean Baptiste Devouton, Alexis Delbarre, Jean Baptiste Pinault and Johann Baptist Warlang (1791–1865) from Trier, who had been trained in the factory.

During the second production phase under Marx, the Trier painter Christoph Hawich played a leading role. From 1816 until the collapse of the factory in 1821, he was the head of painting (“First Painter and Teacher”), not only painting himself, but also providing the other factory painters with suitable templates for reproduction on porcelain, both with his own designs and with drawings and Graphics by other artists. He was also responsible for the training of suitable junior staff. Hawich did not sign either, but his authorship can largely be proven by the Trier views of his lithograph portfolio, edited in 1823, which correspond to the porcelain.

But Hawich was not without competition. The aforementioned Johann Baptist Warlang, who now also called himself Walrand, settled in Trier as a freelance porcelain painter in 1818 at the latest, after having worked in Paris for several years. He decorated the white goods from the Trier porcelain factory, later also from other manufacturers, with high-quality Trier views, mythological motifs and flower decorations, which were often accompanied by rich, partially etched matt and polished gold decorations. However, Walrand used to sign his work with his full name or use the monograms "JBW", "JW" or "IW".

Exhibitions and collections

The City Museum Simeonstift Trier taught from 9 April to 31 October 2000 the first comprehensive exhibition on Trier porcelain factory and their products from. Under the title of the quote: “For citizens and strangers who hold on to elegance”, the company's own extensive holdings and numerous loans from private collections were presented. Other important locations of Trier porcelain can be seen from the project participation of public collections: Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier, Musée National d'Histoire et d'Art Luxembourg, Ceramics Museum Mettlach (Villeroy & Boch), Museum Prüm, Foundation Prussian Palaces and Gardens Berlin-Brandenburg, Württembergisches State Museum Stuttgart and Saarland Museum, Old Collection, Saarbrücken, which took over the exhibition from November 19, 2000 to January 14, 2001. The catalog manual (cf. lit. catalog) combined comprehensive research results and excellent image material.

literature

• The porcelain factory in St. Martin. In: Trierische Kronik. 1st year 1816, p. 53 (not published)
• Trade and industrial status in Trier 1817 - porcelain factory in St. Martin. In: Trierische Kronik. 3rd year 1818, pp. 56–72, here p. 65 (n.v.)
• On the history of the Trier porcelain manufactory. In: Trierische Chronik. NF VIII. 1912, p. 64 (n.v.)
• Emil Krüger: Trier porcelain. In: Messages of the Rhenish Association for the Preservation of Monuments and Heritage Protection. 3rd year 1909, No. 2, pp. 101-108.
• Peter Brock: The ceramics in the Trier district since the beginning of the French occupation in 1794. In: Trier magazine. 1st year 1926, pp. 63-83.
• Walter Dieck: The Trier Porcelain Manufactory St. Martin. In: Saarbrücker Hefte. No. VI, 1957, pp. 30-35 and Fig. 26-34.
• Walter Dieck: Trier porcelain. In: Pictures from the Trier City Museum. Trier 1960, pp. 62/63.
• Museum Simeonstift Trier (ed.), Walter Dieck / Norbert Mayers (edit.): Trier porcelain. Museum Education - School and Museum, Trier 1978.
• Michel Bloit: Trois Siècles Porcelaine de Paris. Paris 1988.
• Peter Seewaldt: The Trier porcelain painter Johann Baptist Warlang (Warland), 1791-1865. In: Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch. 31, 1991, pp. 153-158.
• Frank Borkam: The Trier Porcelain Manufactory and its view porcelain. In: Johann Anton Ramboux - Views of Trier. Catalog of the City Museum Simeonstift Trier, ed. by Dieter Ahrens, Trier 1991, pp. 58-64.
• Elisabeth Dühr (Ed.): "For citizens and foreigners who hold on to elegance" - Trier porcelain. Trier 2000. Catalog manual for the exhibition of the same name from April 9 to October 31, 2000 in the Simeonstift Museum in Trier and from November 19, 2000 to January 14, 2001 in the Saarland Museum, Old Collection, Saarbrücken.

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Entry on Christian Joseph Deuster in the Rhineland-Palatinate personal database , accessed on March 21, 2017 .
2. ↑ Gregor Scherf: The history of the Trier porcelain manufactory. In: Catalog Handbook Trier 2000. pp. 11–39.
3. ^ The shareholders: Prefect Maximilien Xavier Keppler; Antoine Gand, Keppler's brother-in-law; Prefectural Secretary General Johann Wilhelm Karsch; Johann Jakob Freund, Deuster's brother-in-law.
4. ↑ Raymonde Monnier: Le faubourg Saint-Antoine 1789–1815 - Société des études robespierristes, Paris 1981, p. 351: Cɶur d'Acier Maurice, tourneur en porcelaine, militant sans-culotte. Cɶur d'Acier is also named as a modeller and owner of a porcelain factory in Paris.
5. ↑ The corporation was now called "Gand, Marx et Cie".
6. ^ Gabriele B. Clemens: Trier in the beginning of the 19th century - economic and social-historical aspects. In: Catalog Handbook Trier 2000, pp. 191–200. Peter Marx was one of the 600 most taxed persons in the department and one of the 100 most taxed persons in the city of Trier.
7. ^ Jean-Frank Wagner: Raw materials for porcelain production - conditions for the Trier location. In: Catalog Handbook Trier 2000, pp. 203-207. Reports on details of the raw material mixes have not survived; they are likely to have been considered a trade secret.
8. ↑ Christoph Hawich , application from January 13, 1821 to the Trier Hospitien -ommission with detailed autobiographical information, including the five years of work at the “local, now closed porcelain factory.” Trier city archive, hospital archive D4, miscellaneous, folder b no. 181.
9. ↑ Pre-printed company sheet with letterhead and the manufactory's range of products, such as catalog manual Trier 2000, p. 231.
10. ↑ List of porcelain manufacturers and manufacturers - conveys the superiority of competing European production.
11. ↑ Christoph Krapp and Gregor Scherf: Trier Porcelain - Typology of Forms. In: Catalog Handbook Trier 2000, pp. 41–55 (with illustration of the scratch marks).
12. ^ Gregor Scherf: Trier Porcelain - Typology of the decors. In: Catalog Handbook Trier 2000, pp. 58/59.
13. ↑ The Trier artists Christoph Hawich and Johann Anton Ramboux presented the first lithographed series of views in 1823 and 1824–1827.
14. ↑ Trierische Kronik 1818, like lit.
15. ↑ The large porcelain manufacturers such as Meißen, KPM and Nymphenburg had also taken on a pioneering role with regard to the representation of local sights, which Trier has now followed.
16. ↑ Coffee services “with cornflowers” ​​are not only explicitly listed in the factory form cited; During the excavations on the former factory site, shards with this decor were also found.
17. ↑ Trierische Chronik 1912, like lit.
18. ↑ Brock, as in Lit.Verz., P. 74, based on the Trier civil status registers; Heinrich Milz: On the history of the St. Martin porcelain factory. In: Trierische Chronik NF XVI, 1919/20 - www.dilibri.de/ubtr/periodical/pageview/22123.
19. ↑ Christl Lehnert-Leven: The "Hawichs" and the Trier porcelain manufactory. In: Catalog Handbook Trier 2000, pp. 95–141.
20. ↑ Christoph Hawich: "Trier's antiquities and surroundings in 22 picturesque views, taken by Havich Sohn", lithographed by Johann Susenbeth in Frankfurt, with an explanatory text by Theodor von Haupt. Trier 1823.
21. ↑ Peter Seewaldt: The porcelain painter Johann Baptist Warlang (Walrand) 1791-1865. In: Catalog Handbook Trier 2000, pp. 143–171. Ders .: The Trier porcelain painter Johann Baptist Warlang (Walrand), 1791–1865. For the artist's 200th birthday. In Kurtrierisches Jahrbuch, 31st year 1991, pp. 153–158.
22. ↑ Trierische Kronik, 3rd year 1818, p. 65, as above.