Mostly Meissen

Thomas “Tom” J. Pettey was born in Milwaukee in 1936 and died in Wayne, Illinois, in 2021. When he was not running his very successful printing company in Chicago, Pettey devoted his time to collecting Meissen porcelain. He put together an unbelievably important collection of virtually all Meissen porcelain from the early years of the factory, which Metz Fine Art of Heidelberg in Germany was entrusted with selling.

Tucked in among the 335 lots were a few pieces that would have appeal to collectors and connoisseurs of the dog in art. However, perhaps it was not the right time to offer such a collection, as about half the lots failed to sell.

Under the patronage of Augustus II, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, the Meissen factory was founded in 1710 at Meissen near Dresden as a result of the work of Friedrich Wilhelm Böttger. Court society longed for everything rare, which porcelain was, but the desire of the European countries for porcelain was so great it was causing them very troubling trade gaps. To arrest this disastrous outflow of monies from their kingdoms, the rulers were frantically trying to discover the formula for themselves. Nowhere was this search more intense than in Saxony.

In 1727, the young Dresden sculptor Johann Gottlied Kirchner joined Meissen as modellmeister, and it was he who made the first porcelain animals. In 1731, another Dresden sculptor, Johann Joachim Kändler, was engaged by Meissen, and he became assistant to Kirchner. When Augustus II died in 1733, his successor, Augustus III, who had no interest in porcelain, appointed his cabinet minister, Heinrich Count von Brühl, as president of the treasury board that had control over the factory.

The von Brühl family were enthusiastic Pug owners — the breed at this time being fashionable with the nobility — and it was Count Heinrich and Kändler, who had succeeded Kirchner as modellmeister, who jointly were responsible for the great tradition of Meissen Pugs.

All serious Pug art collectors will be familiar with the pair of Meissen Pugs: a dog and bitch with a puppy, each modelled sitting on oval bases with embossed flowers and with cropped ears and collars with bells attached. They were much copied and imitated in the 19th Century by many of the porcelain factories throughout Europe. The Meissen originals were first modelled in 1745 by Kändler, who wrote at the time: “Pug dog with a young Pug, naturally presented before His Majesty the King.” The pair from the Pettey collection sold just above estimate for €14,000.

Included in Kändler’s many models of Pugs is a cane handle created in 1750, the end piece being in the shape of a Pug’s head, while the rest of the handle has hand-painted floral decorations. The one offered by Metz sold within estimate for €650.

Meissen not only set the standard for the manufacture of porcelain throughout Europe but also established a template for the design and manufacture of models of dogs. The factory’s influence in this area can still be seen to this day in many models of dogs being created. Well in excess of 50 different models of Pugs have been produced by the factory, and because of their enduring qualities many of the original models Kändler designed approaching 300 years ago are still in production today.

Quoting from the Antiques Council: “There is nothing in all of English decorative arts that has continued to charm and fascinate collectors as much as English enamels …” To this, one must add “earlier Meissen ones.” These exquisite small objects take the form of small boxes and were given as tokens of affection or esteem. Their uses were many and varied, the most familiar types being snuff boxes, patch boxes (for holding beauty patches), bonbonnières (to hold sweetmeats to sweeten the breath, as dental hygiene was way in the future) and étuis (for holding a variety of useful things a lady found “necessary”).

The Meissen floral-decorated snuff box with the inner lid painted with a dog sitting on a red cushion raising one paw has as the background a mountain landscape with a church and was made in 1740, but it failed to find a new home.

The bonbonnière hunting box was made in 1745. It was modelled in the form of a dog’s head with the lid painted with hunters on horseback in a landscape and the inside colorfully painted with poultry. Against an estimate of €3,800 it sold for €5,500.

The bonbonnière in the form of a Pug bitch with three puppies is one of few pieces in the Pettey collection not made by Meissen. It was made at the short-lived Chelsea factory in London in 1770. The factory was the first important porcelain manufactory in England, established circa 1743-45, and aimed its wares at the luxury market, its site in Chelsea being close to fashionable Ranelagh Gardens and Pleasure Ground. The bonbonnière well exceeded estimate, selling for €6,000. A similar example, but with the base the Pugs are on decorated differently, is in the collection of Baroness Willoughby de Eresby at Grimsthorpe Castle in England.

Dogs feature in many of the early groups made at Meissen, but the ones offered had a poor reception. The sportsman holding his rifle with his dog sitting beside him was made circa 1743-44. It was modelled by Johann Friedrich Eberlein, partially reworked by Kändler, but failed to sell.

Potpourri vases are among the most decorative items in all early porcelain, and Meissen were one of the earliest factories to manufacture them. The vase richly embossed with flowers and leaves was modelled by Johann Gottleib Ehder in 1747, with the base decorated almost in full relief with pheasants and partridge and a Pointer on point, but failed to reach expectations.

A similar pair, also modelled by Ehder, with the same hunting scene on the base but the dog painted in different colors, suffered the same fate.

It is frequently thought that the bull-baiting group was first made by Obadiah Sherratt in the Staffordshire Potteries circa 1820 and copied by many unknown modellers for the next 40 years (an example I included in my last feature). Some 70 years before Sherratt, Kändler modelled one for Meissen; his group, unlike the ones from the Staffordshire Potteries, has three dogs rather than two, one biting at the bull’s rear, another attached to the bull’s neck, while a third baits the bull. Kändler was obviously familiar with what we now consider a barbaric sport.

With a similar estimate as many made in Staffordshire, sadly it was not greeted with the same enthusiasm. Perhaps collectors prefer the more “folk art” groups rather than fine porcelain.