CIRCA 1710-15, THE COLD COLOUR DECORATION ALMOST CERTAINLY MARTIN SCHNELL WORKSHOP, DRESDEN

The Markgräfin Caroline Luise von Baden-Durlach (1723-83) owned vases of this type with related black ‘laccirt’ decoration that she kept in the Naturalia Cabinet of her Karlsruhe Residence. The vases remained in the family until they were sold in the Sotheby’s Baden-Baden sale on 7 October 1995, lot 1268. One of these vases was subsequently sold by Christie’s, London, on 11 December 2007, lot 3, and the other, which is illustrated in recent literature,¹ was sold by Bonhams, London, on 22 July 2020, lot 4. The form of the vase is thought to have been designed by Johann Jakob Irminger, the Court Silversmith. Cassidy-Geiger notes the form is similar to the designs of the Italian architect, Giovanni Giardini da Forli, published a short time later in 1714, but a connection between the two designs has yet to be substantiated.²

Böttger's early factory quickly adapted the use of black lacquer and other decorative elements found on Asian imports into its highly innovative repertoire for the decoration of red stoneware. Red stoneware and black-glazed red stoneware were first offered for sale at the Easter Fair (Ostermesse) at Leipzig in 1710, the same year that the factory opened. Also in January the same year, Martin Schnell was employed by Augustus 'the Strong', Elector of Saxony, as his Hofflacquirer (Court lacquerer), and a collaboration with the Meissen factory was formed. Schnell is recorded as having been paid a high salary by the factory for lacquering and decorating red stoneware. In a list of factory workers drawn up in Autumn 1710 (probably by Böttger himself), a Laccirer Schnell is recorded with a weekly salary of 5 thalers.³ By August 1711 he was hugely busy, being paid 30 thalers every two weeks.⁴ It is clear from his extremely high wages that his work was very highly regarded by Augustus, even if the wages included the cost of the gold which he needed for his work.⁵

Specific information about Schnell's work appears to be scant. Monika Kopplin takes on the problem of attribution for Schnell's work by detailed comparison between simulated lacquerwork on Böttger pieces with lacquer furniture and other wood objects applied with lacquer decoration known to have been supplied by Schnell.⁶ Schnell’s workshop didn’t decorate Meissen stoneware pieces for very long; from 1716 onwards Schnell's name no longer appears in the Meissen records. The factory's development and shift to white porcelain production from 1713 onwards is thought to be a factor in this, and by 1717, Schnell and his workshop were fully preoccupied with the fittings and interior decoration of various buildings for the king.


1. Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, '"Ein ganz gantz Neue Arth von Porcellain" Die Produkte der Meiβener Manufaktur im Stil von Lack’ in Monika Kopplin (Ed.), Schwartz Porcelain, Museum für Lackkunst and Schloβ Favorite bei Rastatt 2003-2004 Exhibition Catalogue, Munich, 2003, p. 165, no. 77, and Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, ‘Porcelain and Prestige. Princely Gifts and "White Gold" from Meissen’ in M. Cassidy-Geiger (Ed.), Fragile Diplomacy, 2007, p. 13, fig. 1-24, cat. no. 21, where it is illustrated with a mounted unpolished and undecorated example and two red examples decorated with gilding.
2. Cassidy-Geiger, ibid., 2003, p. 165, no. 77.
3. Barbara Szelegejd, Red and Black Stoneware and their Imitations in the Wilanów Collection, Warsaw, 2013, p. 211.
4. Barbara Szelegejd, ibid., 2003, p. 211.
5. Noted by Monika Kopplin in her essay 'All Sorts of Lacquered Chinese on a Black Glaze - Lacquer Painting on Böttger Stoneware and the Problem of Attribution to Martin Schnell' in Monika Kopplin (Ed.), ibid., 2003 (English Edition, Munich, 2004, p. 84). The 1712 factory payroll records that Schnell's monthly salary was 100 Reichstaler.
6. Kopplin, ibid., Munich, 2003, pp. 171-193 (English Edition, 2004, pp. 83-91).