W. ZSOLNAY, PECS, HUNGARY, DATED 1878

The Zsolnay Porcelain Manufacture opened in 1853 in Pecs. Under the direction of the founder's son, Vilmos Zsolnay, the factory exhibited in the Great Exhibitions of the 1870s and was awarded a price in Paris in 1878. As most European ceramicists of the period, the Zsolnay factory copied Iznik vessels from readily available publications such as L'Art pour tous, a French magazine published in 1869. Zsolnay pieces in the Iznik style mostly date from the period between 1878 and 1882, such as this pair of tankards which is dated 1878 (Éva Csenkey, Ágota Steinert, Piroska Ács, Hungarian Ceramics from the Zsolnay Manufactory, 1853-2001, Yale, p.39).