Tuesday 9 December 2008Unique collection of Meissen porcelain on view for the first time
The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain, 1710-50
Published by London-based fine-art publisher D Giles Limited in association with The Frick Collection, New York, The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain, 1710–50, is a comprehensive catalogue to one of the foremost gatherings of early Meissen porcelain, and accompanied a major exhibition of approximately 100 examples presented exclusively at the Frick in the summer of 2008.
The Arnhold porcelain collection, assembled by Lisa and Heinrich Arnhold, is the most important of the great prewar Meissen collections to have survived intact and continues to grow in the hands of their descendants today. Although the formula and method for manufacturing true porcelain was developed in China by the sixth century, it remained a mystery in the West until its discovery in 1709 by alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger under the patronage of August II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. The following year, the King established a royal manufactory outside Dresden in the town of Meissen, and the porcelain created there has been known by that name ever since. Early Meissen porcelain and its decoration remained experimental into the 1740s, and examples from this period are particularly rare and have always been highly sought after. Although well known to specialists, the remarkable Arnhold gathering of early Meissen has never before been the subject of a major public exhibition.
Many of the pieces were bought in and around Dresden by Heinrich and Lisa Arnhold, during the period 1926–35. Guided by such leading dealers of the day as M. Solomon, Arthur Wittekind, and Hermann Ball, the Arnholds were active buyers at the auctions of the Ostermann, Goldschmidt, Mühsam, and von Born collections. With a focus on tableware and vases, objects of royal or significant provenance, this Dresden group is notable for its concentration of stoneware and porcelains with different ground colours, painted and moulded patterns, and armorial wares. Particularly noteworthy is the emphasis placed on accumulating Meissen porcelain decorated outside the manufactory by independent enamellers termed the “Hausmaler.” Featuring a broad range of early works—many of them experimental —the collection includes large vases, table services, tea, coffee, and chocolate services, large and small figures, and comparative pieces in silver, serpentine, glass, and Asian ceramics.
The Arnhold collection was brought to America in the 1940s, ahead of the family’s move from Dresden. Since 1972 Henry Arnhold has continued the tradition of collecting early Meissen, seen most strongly in his acquisition of the factory’s so-called red porcelain, produced only from 1710 to 1713. Expanding the depth and range of certain areas not featured originally has led to the inclusion of works such as those by independent German and Dutch decorators and gold-decorated wares from Augsburg and other specialist workshops. He has also added significant examples by Johann Gregorius Höroldt (1696–1775), chief painter after 1720, whose innovations with enamel paint formulas brought an unprecedented variety and range of colors to the manufactory. The underglaze blue-decorated vases and wares constitute a wholly new area of interest. Royal wares, they were commissioned by August II for his unrivalled porcelain palace known as the “Japanisches Palais.” Furthermore, an interest in comparative pieces, such as prototypes in Asian ceramics or silver, has led to the recent acquisition of a wide array of Chinese and Japanese porcelains with royal inventory numbers. Other recent acquisitions include large and small figures and groups by the leading Meissen sculptor Johann Joachim Kändler (1706–1775), who was appointed court sculptor in Dresden in 1730 and became Modellmeister at the Meissen factory in 1733.
The volume also contains major essays by Sebastian Kuhn, who studies the wider trends in collecting European porcelain between 1900 and 1960 in Europe and America, and by Heike Biedermann, who looks at the Arnholds as collectors of modern art in Dresden from the year of their marriage in 1914 until 1935. The catalogue is introduced by a personal recollection by Henry Arnhold of his family as collectors and art patrons in Dresden and how the porcelain collection was created. The volume also includes appendices and a bibliography.
The Authors:
Maureen Cassidy-Geiger is Curator of the Arnhold Collection in New York. Sebastian Kuhn is a leading expert on European ceramics and was formerly Director of the European Ceramics and Glass Department, Sotheby’s, London. Heike Biedermann is a curator at the Gemälde Galerie Neue Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.
THE ARNHOLD COLLECTION OF MEISSEN PORCELAIN, 1710–50
800 pages, 9” x 11” (279 x 229mm)
1,060 colour and 15 black-and-white illustrations, including one colour map, hardback
Text: Up to 170,000 words
ISBN: 978 1 904832 44 7 (13 digit)
ISBN: 1 904832 44 X (10 digit)
Price: US$275.00/UK£140.00
Publication date: May, 2008
Publisher: D Giles Limited, London
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About The Frick Collection, New York
The Frick Collection was founded by Henry Clay Frick (1849–1919), the Pittsburgh coke and steel industrialist, who bequeathed his New York residence and the most outstanding of his many artworks to establish a public gallery for the purpose of “encouraging and developing the study of the fine arts.” Chief among his bequests, which also included sculpture, drawings, prints, and decorative arts such as furniture, porcelains, enamels, rugs, and silver, were one hundred thirty-one paintings. Additional paintings have been acquired over the years by the Trustees, and The Frick Collection now houses a permanent collection of more than 1,300 works of art from the Renaissance to the late nineteenth century, including superb examples of Old Masters, English eighteenth-century portraits, Dutch seventeenth-century works of art, Italian Renaissance paintings, Renaissance bronzes, Limoges enamels, Chinese porcelains, French eighteenth-century furniture and important Sèvres porcelain.
For more information visit http://www.frick.org
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