Frankenthal porcelain art was produced for only 45 years, from 1755 to 1800. But it has been a declaration of love to exquisite relish and culinary culture until today. The aura of the original radiates impressively in the museum “Erkenbert-Museum” in Frankenthal.
Hand-tall Mr Fall sits cheekily on a china bowl, wearing knickerbockers and a cap with a tip and holding ripe grapes in his hand. Beautiful Ms Summer, wearing a tied dress and holding a bunch of wheat ears in her arms, stretches out next to him. Together with Ms Spring and Mr Winter, the ensemble is the big attraction on the table laid splendidly in the Frankenthal museum. The porcelain art seems like a lush bouquet of flowers and is taller than the hair styles of the ladies, who used to converse at such decorated tables in the times of Prince-elector Charles Theodore.
“This table decoration is the most select piece in the museum,” director Vera Hollfelder explains. Spices were served in these bowls, herbs draped in the little tower.” Salt, mass-produced nowadays, was a rarity back in the late 18thcentury; Pepper caused ecstasy. The 31-year old explains the stories of the over 200-year-old exhibits vividly and lovingly. “You may consider porcelain art kitschy or out of date at first sight, however, Frankenthal porcelain is not[H1] . You just have to take a close look.”
The valuable porcelain figures made in the historical Frankenthal factory once used to decorate splendid banquets. Today, they rest in display cases in the Erkenbert-Museum: plates and sauce boats as well as figures from daily life or fantasy. Made elaborately, painted with love and decorated in great detail they were produced under the reign of Prince-elector and Count Palatinate Charles Theodore between 1755 and 1800—for only 45 years. Today, however, they belong to the most attractive pieces of German porcelain art of the 18thcentury.
“The porcelain furnishings in a banquet displayed the noble-mindedness and worldly manner of its owners,” Vera knows. Only nobility could afford the costly and modern porcelain. From the 6thcentury and for centuries to go, the Chinese had kept the formula secret. It was only around 1700 when Johann Friedrich Böttger managed to produce the first hard-paste porcelain on European soil in Dresden. Around 1748, Paul Anton Hannong also acquired the “Arcanum”—the secret knowledge of porcelain production. He started off in Strasbourg, France, went on to apply the technique in Mannheim for Prince-elector Charles Theodore, who contracted him with the greatest of pleasure, and finally in 1755 the Frankenthal porcelain factory opened.