San Francisco Ceramic Circle

Illustrated Lecture

"Meissen Porcelain for the French Market: the influence and input of the Marchands-Merciers ca. 1728 - 1756"

by

Maureen Cassidy Geiger, Curator, The Arnhold Collection, Dresden / New York and Guest Curator, the Frick Collection

10.00 AM Sunday, 16th November 2008

Florence Gould Theater, Legion of Honor

Lincoln Park, San Francisco

Enter by the West Terrace entrance. Doors open from 9.30 AM

SFCC lectures are free with Museum paid or FAMSF membership entry

About our speaker: Maureen Cassidy-Geiger is curator of the Arnhold Collection, one of the greatest private holdings of Meissen porcelain assembled in the twentieth century. Guest Curator of back-to-back Meissen exhibitions in New York City, The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain, 1710-1750 at The Frick Collection (March-June 2008) and Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porelain for European Courts, ca. 1710-1756 at Bard Graduate Center (November 2007 to February 2008), she was also responsible for the catalogues.

About the talk: The French market for Meissen imports was dominated by the Parisian machands-merciers. The earliest of these was Rudolphe Lemaire, whose contract was abruptly canceled in 1731 when his thinly-veiled scheme to sell unmarked Meissen copies as Asian originals unraveled; though a portion of the production was seized and ended up in the Japanese Palace, some pieces nonetheless reached France and quickly influenced production at the new French soft-paste manufactory opened at Chantilly. Trade with France continued uninterrupted under a succession of dealers who battled over the Meissen monopoly and traveled there routinely from Paris. The marchands-merciers response to the importation of the small Meissen sculptures designed for the dessert was to transform them into high-style room decorations by mounting them in gilt-bronze, a taste that was decidedly foreign to the Saxon court but gained favor in the rest of Europe.

Next meeting: Sunday, January 18, 2009. Judie Siddall:  The Origins of Transferware Animal and Zoo Patterns