Youth with a Basket Figurine
Aelteste Volkstedter Porcelain Manufactory
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Porcelain is a noble and the most refined type of ceramics. It is fashioned from a blend of various clay varieties, primarily composed of kaolin. The body is either coated with a transparent glaze or left unglazed, which is known as biscuit porcelain. The wares undergo at least two main stages of thermal treatment and are fired at exceptionally high temperatures. Fine ceramic objects are characterised by their white colour, resonance, strength, and translucency. Two fundamentally different decoration methods are employed in its production: relief modelling and painting.
Porcelain originated in China around the 6th–7th centuries, where the secret of its manufacture was closely guarded. Chinese porcelain items reached Europe during the Middle Ages and were valued more highly than gold, which later earned them the moniker "white gold". For centuries, European masters attempted to replicate this material, creating only fragile, soft imitations instead. The secret of the Chinese craftsmen was finally unlocked only at the beginning of the 18th century in Saxony.
The first manufacture in Europe to produce hard-paste porcelain was founded in 1710 by the Saxon Elector and King of Poland, Augustus II the Strong, near Dresden in the town of Meissen. Its establishment followed the development of kaolin clay mines and the invention of the porcelain paste recipe in 1709 by the alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger. Throughout the 18th century, the Meissen manufacture experienced its most illustrious period of flourish, shaped by the work of such prominent masters as Johann Gregor Höroldt, Johann Gottlieb Kirchner, Johann Joachim Kändler, Michel Victor Acier, and others. This was an era of bold experimentation, technological refinement, and the creation of iconic models.
Apart from the world-renowned Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, numerous other porcelain factories operated throughout Germany. Chief among these was the Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin (KPM). No less popular was the production of the enterprises in Dresden, Nymphenburg, Volkstedt, Ludwigsburg, Frankenthal, and Selb.
Among these famous German enterprises, a special place was occupied precisely by Thuringian factories, where the Aelteste Volkstedter Porcelain Manufactory, founded in 1762, was one of the oldest and most successful. It is to the refined heritage of this renowned manufactory that the presented porcelain figurine belongs, presumably manufactured in the late 19th or early 20th century.
The subject of the work turns to the pastoral and genre themes popular in European plastic art – the depiction of a grape harvester. Figurine presents a youth in a graceful movement, supporting a deep basket with both hands behind his shoulders, filled to the brim with ripe clusters. A small jug is fixed to his waist. Composition is characterised by subtle plastic modelling, a dynamic silhouette, and the colouristic expressiveness of the painting. Small plastic forms of this manufactory have always been characterised by special attention to detail: the folds of the clothing – a bright green vest with a golden border and dark culottes – are carefully rendered, as well as the texture of the woven basket and the scattering of purple grapes. Youth's face is modelled with a poetic naivety and sincerity of emotions characteristic of German Baroque and Rococo. The bottom of the product bears an underglaze blue mark of the manufactory in the form of a crowned monogram, crossed out with a green brushstroke, which historically indicated the marking of a certain grade of product at the factory. Complete factory marking is also present: under the mark – the factory's foundation year 1762, alongside model number V20712 impressed into the paste.
Porcelain originated in China around the 6th–7th centuries, where the secret of its manufacture was closely guarded. Chinese porcelain items reached Europe during the Middle Ages and were valued more highly than gold, which later earned them the moniker "white gold". For centuries, European masters attempted to replicate this material, creating only fragile, soft imitations instead. The secret of the Chinese craftsmen was finally unlocked only at the beginning of the 18th century in Saxony.
The first manufacture in Europe to produce hard-paste porcelain was founded in 1710 by the Saxon Elector and King of Poland, Augustus II the Strong, near Dresden in the town of Meissen. Its establishment followed the development of kaolin clay mines and the invention of the porcelain paste recipe in 1709 by the alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger. Throughout the 18th century, the Meissen manufacture experienced its most illustrious period of flourish, shaped by the work of such prominent masters as Johann Gregor Höroldt, Johann Gottlieb Kirchner, Johann Joachim Kändler, Michel Victor Acier, and others. This was an era of bold experimentation, technological refinement, and the creation of iconic models.
Apart from the world-renowned Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, numerous other porcelain factories operated throughout Germany. Chief among these was the Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin (KPM). No less popular was the production of the enterprises in Dresden, Nymphenburg, Volkstedt, Ludwigsburg, Frankenthal, and Selb.
Among these famous German enterprises, a special place was occupied precisely by Thuringian factories, where the Aelteste Volkstedter Porcelain Manufactory, founded in 1762, was one of the oldest and most successful. It is to the refined heritage of this renowned manufactory that the presented porcelain figurine belongs, presumably manufactured in the late 19th or early 20th century.
The subject of the work turns to the pastoral and genre themes popular in European plastic art – the depiction of a grape harvester. Figurine presents a youth in a graceful movement, supporting a deep basket with both hands behind his shoulders, filled to the brim with ripe clusters. A small jug is fixed to his waist. Composition is characterised by subtle plastic modelling, a dynamic silhouette, and the colouristic expressiveness of the painting. Small plastic forms of this manufactory have always been characterised by special attention to detail: the folds of the clothing – a bright green vest with a golden border and dark culottes – are carefully rendered, as well as the texture of the woven basket and the scattering of purple grapes. Youth's face is modelled with a poetic naivety and sincerity of emotions characteristic of German Baroque and Rococo. The bottom of the product bears an underglaze blue mark of the manufactory in the form of a crowned monogram, crossed out with a green brushstroke, which historically indicated the marking of a certain grade of product at the factory. Complete factory marking is also present: under the mark – the factory's foundation year 1762, alongside model number V20712 impressed into the paste.
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