Wilhelm Caspar Wegely

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Wilhelm Caspar Wegely (born November 15, 1714 in Berlin ; † September 14, 1764 there ) was a Berlin entrepreneur and founded the first Berlin porcelain factory in 1751 . Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky took over parts of it in 1761 for his manufactory, which later became the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin .

Life

Memorial plaque , Klosterstrasse 67, in Berlin-Mitte

Wilhelm Caspar Wegely, who comes from a centuries-old Swiss patrician family, was initially from 1737 - alongside his brother Andreas Daniel Wegely - co-owner of the largest woolen manufacturer in Berlin, which his father Johann Georg Wegely had founded. However, he hoped that porcelain production ( white gold ) would achieve even greater economic success. So he turned to Frederick the Great with a petition and asked for support, as a new factory would create many jobs. The king complied with the request and gave him the former commandant's house with premises in the street Hinter den Baraquen or Casernen (later Neue Friedrichstraße 22-23, which was omitted when the television tower was built) to build a porcelain factory . Christian August Naumann built a new manufacturing house there. Wegely then opened the first porcelain factory in Berlin in 1751. At first he succeeded in recruiting a few employees from the Höchst Porcelain Manufactory and later also some craftsmen from the Meissen Manufactory . The sculptor Ernst Heinrich Reichard and the miniature painters Isaak Jakob Clauce and Friedrich Roth set artistic accents. The sale of the products began in 1753 . After the outbreak of the Seven Years' War , the manufactory ran into economic difficulties. Friedrich the Great had occupied Saxony and confiscated the Meissen porcelain factory, whereupon his interest in the Wegely factory dwindled. Production had to be stopped in 1757 . Wegely's sons sold the manufacturing building in 1780. Wegely's grave is in the churchyard of the Parochialkirche (Berlin) .

family

Wilhelm Caspar Wegely married Jacobina Sandrart, the daughter of the factory owner Georg Sandrart, in Magdeburg in 1735. He had the sons Carl Jacob (1745-after 1791) and Johann Georg (1748-after 1833), who took over the management of the Berlin woolen factory from 1764 until the 1790s after his death.

Products

Due to difficulties in the composition of the porcelain mass, the products of the Wegelyschen manufactory did not initially achieve the quality of Meissen porcelain, although kaolin from Saxony was used and the shards were therefore pure white in color. The relief decor looks a little rough at times. The flower painting, on the other hand, is richer than in comparable dishes and is done in bright colors.

Unique pieces from Wegelysch production can be found in the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin ( Schloss Köpenick ) and in the Belvedere (Charlottenburg) .

Porcelain from Wegely's production is very rare today and has a high collector's value.

The mark

The Wegely manufactory used a blue W in underglaze as a brand .

Honors

The location of today's Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin is on Wegelystraße, named after Wilhelm Caspar Wegely.

literature

  • Hans-Joachim Beeskow : Wilhelm Kaspar Wegely created the first “white gold” in Berlin , Berlin monthly magazine 11/1997
  • Bodo Harenberg (Ed.): Die Chronik Berlins , Chronik Verlag, Dortmund, ISBN 3-88379-082-6
  • Jan Durdík et al .: The large picture lexicon of antiques , Bertelsmann Lexikon-Verlag, 1968
  • Wilckens: Krepon, Kredit und Porzellan, the Wegely family , 2008, ISBN 3-9522896-3-9
  • Gisela Zick: Berlin porcelain manufactured by Wilhelm Caspar Wegely 1751–1757 . Berlin 1978 ISBN 3-7861-1134-0

Web links

Commons : Wilhelm Kaspar Wegely  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gernot Ernst, Ute Laur-Ernst: The city of Berlin in printmaking 1570-1870, vol. 2 . 1st edition. Lukas-Verlag, Berlin 2009, ISBN 978-3-86732-055-9 , pp. 175 .
  2. ^ Nadja Stulz-Herrnstadt: Berlin bourgeoisie in the 18th and 19th centuries . de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 2002, ISBN 3-11-016560-0 , p. 77 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  3. ↑ Helmut Riege (Ed.): Klopstock Briefe 1783-1794 . de Gruyter, Berlin, New York 1999, p. 466 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
personal data
SURNAME Wegely, Wilhelm Caspar
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wegely, Wilhelm Kaspar
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Prussian merchant and entrepreneur
DATE OF BIRTH November 5, 1714
PLACE OF BIRTH Berlin
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 1764
Place of death Berlin