The Triumph of Amphitrite: Reconstructing and Restoring Count Brühl’s Meissen Porcelain Table Fountain

Abstract

Recently the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) restored and reconstructed a lost ceramic masterpiece for the new Europe 1600–1815 Galleries. It is a porcelain table fountain made at Meissen for an important royal wedding in 1747, which the Museum acquired in 1870. New research has revealed much about the commission, production and history of this previously mostly unknown centerpiece and it also informed the restoration of this spectacular object. For this project, we used a combination of cutting edge 3D-technology and traditional ceramic making techniques.

Keywords:

• Amphitrite
• ceramic making
• conservation
• Count Brühl
• Meissen
• porcelain
• 3D-technology

Notes

1. Rudert, «Lorenzo Mattielli,» pp. 126–39; Woelk, “Der Dresdener Neptunbrunnen,» pp. 26–31.

2. Woelk, pp. 26–31.

3. Betriebs-Archiv der Staatlichen Porzellanmanufaktur Meißen, AA I Ab 24, 1745, November 1745, fol. 441r-v; Pietsch, Die Arbeitsberichte, p. 110.

4. Kunze-Köllensperger, “Heinrich Graf von Brühl,” pp. 19–23.

5. This only survives only as a transcript, published in full by Berling, Das Meissner Porzellan, pp. 187–90. This inventory was probably in the archive at Schloss Pförten at the time and lost since.

6. Ibid., p. 190.

7. Ehder worked with Kändler in Dresden in November 1745, when work began on the fountain. Eberlein, for instance, refined and cut up Kändler’s clay model of Amphitrite, so that molds could be taken from the parts. Ehder modeled the four vases that were originally made for the fountain (October 1746) as well as other architectural parts, including a rock and the paddle-wheel for the shell-wagon (November 1746). Betriebs-Archiv der Staatlichen Porzellanmanufaktur Meißen, AA I Ab 24, 1745, November 1745, fol. 446v: 4; AA I 26, 1746, Oktober 1746, fol. 376r-377r; November 1746, fol. 393r-v.

8. The walls with icicles; two other large architectural pieces, almost certainly the plinths for the river gods; the borders; most of the rocks; and the two large shell-basins. Finally, he corrected one of the vases modeled with a relief of Bacchus in December. It seems that work on the vases ran a little late, as in December Ehder finished the relief decoration for one of them, and another modeler, Peter Reinicke, who had not previously been involved, modeled the relief for another. This seems to be the final entry for work on the fountain in the modelers’ work reports. Betriebs-Archiv der Staatlichen Porzellanmanufaktur Meißen, AA I Ab 26, 1746, November 1746, fol. 387r-v; Dezember 1746, fol. 401r–402r; fol. 412r-v; fol. 413r-v.

9. Betriebs-Archiv der Staatlichen Porzellanmanufaktur Meißen, AAIII H124.

10. Kind information of the current Modelmeister at Meissen, Mr Uwe Marschner and first-hand observation at the Meissen factory.

11. Water would have spouted from at least seven different points when the fountain was in use: from the mouths of the two horses and the dolphin at Neptune’s feet; from two holes in the shell-work underneath Neptune and Amphitrite; from the vases held by the river gods and probably from two rocks in front of the fountain.

12. See Bursche, Tafelzier des Barock on the tradition of elaborate table centerpieces.

13. Genealogisch Historische Nachrichten 113, 1747, 433, quoted in Bursche, Tafelzier des Barock, 53.

14. See pp.258–259 and note 2.

15. This inventory survives only as a transcript and was probably in the archive at Schloss Pförten at the time and lost since (See note 5). Schwarm-Tomisch, “Die ‘Reichsgräfl.’ Brühl. Verlassenschaft Die Porzellansammlung Brühl im Nachlassverzeichnis von 1765,” in Pietsch (ed.), Schwanenservice, Meissener Porzellan für Heinrich Graf von Brühl, p. 132, note 102. Schwarm-Tomisch presumes that the fountain as well as all the other porcelain mentioned in the 1753 pantry (conditorey) inventory was housed at Schloss Pförten. It is in fact much more likely that this was the inventory of Bruhl’s main pantry in his Dresden Palace as much of its contents was needed for official, State entertaining.

16. See note 15, Ibid., pp. 131–34, and Appendix II, p. 251.

17. Pietsch and Banz, Triumph of the Blue Swords, p. 41.

18. The Museum has carried out, in collaboration with Dr Kelly Domoney, Research Fellow at the Cranfield Forensic Institute, XRF surface analyses which show that these un-marked pieces indeed date from before 1774. The findings of this research will be published separately.

19. Fiedler, Zur Geschichte des Kurländischen Palais und des Marconilischen Palais, p. 49.

20. Ibid., p. 68.

21. Kunze, Ein Palais erzählt, p. 84. Unfortunately Kunze does not give an exact reference for this quote. With special thanks to André van der Goes who has attempted to find this quote in the papers concerning Prinz Maximilian in the HStADD.

22. There are for instance 21 more-or-less complete parts from the base and surrounding rock-work of the equestrian monument to Augustus III, which was modeled by Kändler in 1753.

23. This polychrome copy had been exhibited in the Leipziger Kunst-Gewerbe-Ausstellung in 1879 before being acquired by the Royal Saxon Porzellan und Gefäss-Sammlung for 2400 marks in 1880, where it was displayed from at least 1884. See “Die Leipziger Kunstgewerbe-Ausstellung, 1879, p. 23; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellansammlung”) Archive, SKD Inv. 353, Zugangsverzeichnis der Königliche Porzellan Sammlung, fol. 8r, May 26 1880; Graesse, Führer durch die Räume, p. 27.

24. Betriebs-Archiv der Staatlichen Porzellanmanufaktur Meißen, III H 31, Gestaltung, Taren bei der Gestaltungsbrauche 1867, fol. 67r, November 1876.

25. These were also reproduced, but it seems that these were never acquired by the Porzellan und Gefäss-Sammlung, as the width in the 1880 acquisitions report is given as two meters, which corresponds with the current configuration of this version of the fountain. See: Betriebs-Archiv der Staatlichen Porzellanmanufaktur Meißen, III H 31, Gestaltung, Taren bei der Gestaltungsbrauche 1867, fol. 67r, November 1876; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellansammlung Archive, SKD Inv. 353, Zugangsverzeichnis der Königliche Porzellan Sammlung, fol. 8r, May 26 1880; It is likely that the full ensemble was deemed to be too large for display.

26. This means that there are at least three damaged spare wall sections. We also have an additional fragment from the single rock that supports the large basin. Museum number: 246:1/58-1870; Museum number: 246:1/15-1870.

27. In order to complete this border we had to make replacements for about half the component parts.

28. With thanks to the staff of the Porzellansammlung, Dresden, especially the Director, Professor Ulrich Pietsch and the conservator Heike Ulbricht.

29. The rocks required additional treatment while the clay was still cheese-hard: closely following the style of originals, he scratched parallel lines into their surfaces to give them a rock-like finish.

30. This animation, created by Patrick Neubert, under supervision of Professor Dr Markus Wacker at the Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft, Dresden, will also be available in a V&A film on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9AKtrtqpCag

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Reino Liefkes

Reino Liefkes is Senior Curator and Head of Ceramics & Glass at the V&A Museum, London. He specializes in European glass and earthenware and was Lead Curator of the new V&A Ceramics Galleries, which opened in 2009–10. He led the project on the reconstruction and restauration of the Meissen Neptune table fountain for the Europe 1600–1815 Galleries. He is the author/editor of Glass (1997) and Masterpieces of World Ceramics (2008) and is currently the Chairperson of the ICOM International Glass Committee. [email protected]