Period: 1900
Style: Art Nouveau Style
Material: Porcelain, Gilt Gold
Size: Height 8.5 cm
Origin: Vienna Royal Porcelain Manufactory, Austria (Founded 1718 – Present)
Description
This small heavily gilded porcelain vase is crafted in Art Nouveau style by Vienna Royal Porcelain Manufactory, themed upon Flora of Roman mythology. It features a wine-red porcelain glaze adorned with richly gilded hand-painted forget-me-not flowers. The reserved cartouche on the vase body presents a hand-painted portrait of Flora, the Roman goddess of flowers, embellished with turquoise porcelain bead decorations.
Founded in 1718 in Vienna, Austria, the Vienna Royal Porcelain Manufactory was established by Sir Claudius Innocentius du Paquier (1679–1751), a Dutch porcelain master formerly of the Meissen Manufactory, commissioned directly by Charles VI, Holy Roman Emperor (1685–1740).
It is the second-oldest high-end hard-paste porcelain manufactory dedicated to European royal use, only after Germany’s Royal Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, the oldest of its kind in Europe.
In its early days, it mainly imitated and learned from Meissen porcelain. Its early works are renowned for the luxurious Baroque, Rococo and Neoclassical styles. In the middle and later periods, it gradually formed its unique artistic style, surpassing Meissen in magnificence and becoming the ultimate luxury porcelain coveted by European royalty and nobility.
The base hallmark derives from the heraldic shield of the Archduke of Austria. Variations in the shape and color of the hallmark serve as an important basis for dating the porcelain. Royal Vienna Porcelain also inspired the founding and development of Hungary’s Herend Royal Porcelain.
On March 13, 1923, the manufactory relocated to Augarten Castle in Vienna. After Austria became a republic following World War I, it was renamed AUGARTEN WIEN AUSTRIA.
From March 1938 to April 1945, Austria was under German occupation and lost its territorial sovereignty. Porcelain produced during this special period bears the marking GERMANY in various typefaces.