Furniture from the Porcelain Room

Inv. No. CE3/00065-CE3/00075

The set of furniture is made up of two side-boards, eight chairs, two armchairs, a sofa, a pedestal table, a mirror, and a chandelier with droplets.

The furniture was made in Dresden from ebonized walnut. The sideboards and table are inlaid with porcelain plaques made by the Royal Porcelain Factory (K.P.M., Königliche-Porzellan-Manufaktur) in Berlin. Scenes of people can be observed on the plaques, which refer to the genre painting of the Flemish artist David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690). The scenes are of villagers and include peasants, farmers, smokers and tavern scenes.

The chandelier and droplets, the pedestal table legs, the mirror and all other elements applied to the furniture, are made from Meissen porcelain.

The pieces of furniture are the originals from the palace and were purchased in 1867 from the Hôtel Drouot auction house in Paris by Francisco Dasí, sixth Marquis of Dos Aguas. It seems that they were originally made for a Portuguese prince.

It just so happened that when the furniture was restored, cuttings from a newspaper, the Dresdner Nachrichten, were found, dated 11th to 13th of November 1864. They were being used to protect the porcelain plaques.

This set is interesting because, as well as the furniture from other rooms, it is the original from the palace and because the parts were manufactured in two different places. These were the Berlin factory founded in 1752 and the Royal Saxon Porcelain Factory in Meissen, founded in 1710. The latter was the first factory in Europe to manufacture true porcelain, created by Johann Friedrich Böttger two years before.

Items displayed in the Porcelain Room, first floor.