Porcelain, earthenware, ceramics

Aelteste Volkstedter Porcelain Manufactory

The small German settlement of Volkstedt, located in Thuringia, has been around for over a thousand years. Its fame was brought by the factory, which became the oldest porcelain manufacturing enterprise in the region. Since Volkstedt was closely adjacent to the city of Rudolstadt, and in 1921 became one of its districts, the local porcelain production is usually considered to include factories from both settlements.

The groundbreaking success of Meissen, whose porcelain quickly won the hearts of citizens but also rapidly emptied their wallets, prompted many to abandon their previous trades and think about their own porcelain recipe. Not everyone succeeded, but one of those lucky few was Georg Heinrich Macheleid, who worked at the Glucksthal glassworks. Encouraged by his discovery, Macheleid applied for permission to open a manufactory, and on September 8, 1760, he was granted the privilege to do so. Initially, the factory was organized in Zitzendorf but in 1762 it was relocated to Volkstedt, near the princely residence in Rudolstadt. This date is considered to be the birth year of the manufactory.

Five years later, the enterprise was leased to Christian Nonn, who rectified the financial and production setbacks made by the previous owner and ensured a long period of economic and artistic prosperity for the manufactory. However, in 1782, Nonn also leased the porcelain factory in Ilmenau. This enterprise interested him more, and in 1800 he permanently moved there. Over the past decades, his porcelain had already gained a certain level of recognition, thanks to the skillfully crafted forms and magnificent painting.

In 1797, Ernst Konstantin Hessen-Philippsthal, who had returned from Holland, purchased the factory, thinking he was making a very lucrative deal. In the future, he was destined to participate in glorious battles, but apparently it did not work out with porcelain, which led to him selling the factory after two years of ownership.In the 19th century, the situation of the factory improved and the number of orders grew. Sometimes there was even a shortage of their own capacities, so nearby competitors had to be brought in. In the 20th century, well-known ceramists Theodore Böhler and Otto Lindig from the State Higher School of Construction and Forming collaborated with the manufactory on several projects. However, the company gained its fame thanks to its classic samples, executed with astonishing precision and elegance. One of them is considered to be the complex plot composition "The Escape of Countess Kozel from Pilznitz" (collectors often call it the "Folkstedt Carriage"). After the unification of Germany in 1990, the manufactory became part of the large corporation Seltmann Weiden, and after 15 years it partially turned into a museum. Visitors get acquainted with the stages of porcelain production. They also have the opportunity to inspect the halls where the best samples of local porcelain are collected. Other porcelain manufacturers in Volkstedt Many have tried to achieve success in manufacturing and painting porcelain in these places. Some attempts were successful, which led to the creation of factories that left a noticeable mark in the history of German porcelain. Among them are the following enterprises: - Rudolstadt A.G. porcelain factory - Rudolstadt Straus & Sons A.G. porcelain factory - Beyer & Bock porcelain factory - Karl Ens porcelain factory - Kämmer & Kramer porcelain manufactory (Rudolf Kämmer) - Müller & Hammer porcelain manufactory Lazarus Straus & Sons company was founded in 1869 and initially made a profit from reselling glass and ceramics. In 1874, after negotiations between Nathan Strauss and the trade firm RH Macy, departments for selling porcelain and glass were created in each of Macy's stores. Earning a good profit from this, Straus & Sons sent representatives to the United States, where the company New [missing text].York and Rudolstadt Pottery Co. Inc., began producing porcelain through their own developments. Success in America led to the creation of small firms in France and Bohemia. In the main factory, approximately three hundred people worked in 1913, and a third of the production volume was exported. The difficult situation in Germany after World War I and the subsequent deep crisis in the United States forced the company to close. Porzellanfabrik Rudolstadt AG operated from 1918 to 1931. It is best known for its own-designed tableware, supplied to restaurants. To create original items, they invited the famous decorator Adolf Josef Tiza. The peak of production was reached in 1930, when two and a half hundred people worked here. The fall of the American stock market also struck this enterprise, whose situation sharply deteriorated. The factory went bankrupt in 1931.