Breaking News - 28 February 2010

A major debate has been taking place in which has been discussed whether the successful of hard past porcelain was first produced in England and not at Meissen in Germany in 1708. Initial findings suggest that although the porcelain dates from the 1600's ir was manufactured in China and exported to England where these pieces were later on painted in England. For further information look at the following article. read more ...

Making Contact by email or text - 24 February 2010

I will not answer questions relating to authentication by email or text and any member found and continually abusing this rule will have their membership canceled.

The best and easiest way of sending images or asking questions is through the forum. That is what it is there for.

Meissen Exhibition San Francisco Airport Museum - 03 February 2010

For those of you who Live in the Bay Area or have chance to travel to San Francisco Airport there will be a unique opportunity of seeing one of the most important collections of early 18th century Meissen. The San Francisco Airport Museum is unique in not only is the museum housed at San Francisco Airport but it is also recognised as being one of the acclaimed museums. The Museum will be holding an exhibition of Meissen porcelain commemorating their 300th anniversary .The exhibition will open the end of this March and run until September 2010. The exhibition will be in the International Terminal For the further information please contact San Francisco Airport Museums PO Box 8097 San Francisco, CA 94128 650-821-6700 read more ...

An Article About Meissen in Dubai's National Paper - 01 February 2010

Meissen’s makeover at 300

David Crossland, Foreign Correspondent

Last Updated: January 31. 2010 7:27PM UAE / January 31. 2010 3:27PM GMT

Above, an artisan moves porcelain cups after kilning. Top right, flower petals are painted on a teapot. Bottom right, details are carved into a figurine. Sean Gallup / Getty Images

Meissen, the German porcelain manufacturer famous for ornate tableware and baroque figurines that have graced Europe’s royal palaces for 300 years, has survived the economic downturn with a radical overhaul that has propelled it into the 21st century.

In just 12 months, it has branched out into contemporary interior

New Ruling for all authentications and valuations or appraisals - 27 January 2010

For the past few years I have been offering authentication and advice complimentary. But this takes up a large proportion of my time. I regret I am unable to carry on this service without making a small charge.

White Gold The world-famous Highly Important Hoffmeister Collection Bonhams Bond St 25th November - 22 November 2009

The preferred gifts of kings, Meissen porcelain, from many of the noble houses of Europe, will be sold at Bonhams on November 25 2009 when the first part of the Hoffmeister Collection is auctioned.

The world-famous Hoffmeister Collection was assembled over the last 40 years by two German brothers who have a passion for this rare 18th-century porcelain. Considered one of the finest collections of Meissen in the world, for the past ten years it has been on view at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg, one of Europe's leading museums of applied arts. Bonhams will sell the collection in three sales, the first this year in November and two subsequent sales next year.

The Hoffmeister Collection is a survey of the decoration of Meissen porcelain during the first 50 years of the manufactory's existence, when Meissen dominated the taste for porcelain across Europe. It illustrates the quality and variety of the oldest porcelain manufactory in Europe. The collection includes the largest and most important group of 18th-century Meissen armorial porcelain anywhere in the world. The provenance of many pieces is equally distinguished, with examples formerly owned by some of the greatest collectors of the last 150 years, such as Maurice de Rothschild, Ludwig von Darmstaedter and Erich von Goldschmidt-Rothschild.

Sebastian Kuhn, European Ceramics Senior Specialist at Bonhams, says: "It would no longer be possible to assemble such a broad-ranging collection of this quality and condition; and some of the pieces are of such rarity that comparable examples are unlikely ever to appear again on the market."

Featured in the collection are items made for kings, tsars and popes:

Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland

The founder and owner of the Meissen factory was also its biggest customer. He suffered from read more ...

Tips to see invisible Carousal - 19 November 2009

If anyone is using a browser other than Internet Explorer, it may not be possible to see the revolving carousel that takes up a space towards the top of the page 10cm high. Instead you may see a blank white space occupying a large portion of the top of the page.

If it is the case that you are unable to see the carousel please click on any one image at the top of the page to start the carousel rolling.

Two 19th century Meissen Birds make world record price @ CSK - 17 November 2009

Two Meissen Birds make world record price @ christies South Kensington.
These two birds may have been colorful to look at but the price they sold for nearly £12,000 inclusive of premium is amazingly high for two 19th century birds only 12" high. Auctions can be a great place to pick up bargains but the danger is getting carried away with bidding or not wanting the other bidder to go home with the lot you are interested in, hence the immensely high price.

If you are looking for a pair of parrots for a price that is a lot lower than the price these two attained then please contact info@buymeissen.com for further information.
read more ...

Bonhams World Famous Sale Hoffmeister Collection - 31 October 2009

November 25th 2009 Sees the first of three sales of the most important collection of Meissen Porcelain to come onto the market in the last one hundred years.

The first 116 lots of the Hoffmeister Collection of Meissen Porcelain includes some remarkably rare pieces such as lot 3 and 4 both illustrating characters from the famous Commedia del Arte series;

For further information it is recommended to visit the following page to see the catalogue in its entirety.

, http://www.bonhams.com/cgi-bin/public.sh/pubweb/publicSite.r?sContinent=EUR&screen=Catalogue&iSaleNo=18003

Important News Articles about Meissen Porcelain - 13 October 2009

The Internet is inundated with all sorts of Articles on everything. But being able to identify the genuine articles from the bad about Meissen one needs to be an Expert. Here Laurence Mitchell lists some of the interesting and unique articles and links to images that has appeared on the Internet during this last decade.

I can recall how interested I was to learn of this exhibition of early 20th century Meissen Porcelain being held in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg earlier this year. It is important to note that the Hermitage also houses some spectacular pieces of early Meissen Porcelain. But there collection is also a little more diverse than collections of Meissen seen at other major museums.

At the more major museums outside of Dresden and Meissen the focus of the collection is of mostly pieces made between 1710 and 1750 but many of the items on display at the Hermitage were made towards the end of the eighteenth century when Count Camillio Marcolini took over as Director of the Meissen factory. The main modeler of the period was Juhtzer and emulated back into production pieces that were very much in style of the classical period.

To see some of these pieces only a half hour of time is needed to view all 76 images where you can be captivated by the varieties of style on display. I couldn’t but help show you perhaps one of the most magnificent snuff boxes Meissen ever made. Click on the following link to view the box and other items in the collection.

Click here to see News Articles and links to important Meissen Collections

http://www.hermitagemuseum.org/fcgi-bin/db2www/descrPage.mac/descrPage?selLang=English&indexClass=UTENSIL_EN&PID=J-3611&numView=1&am

All Pages open whilst technical work carried out - 25 September 2009

Laurence Mitchell would like to announce that whilst technical upgrades are being carried out all pages will be able to be viewed during the months of October and November.

Buymeissen Technical Update - 18 September 2009

During the next few weeks there will be work carried out on the Buymeissen website. Already the text has been made larger because of accessibility issues.

Some pages will not be viewable. The Meissen Blog has had to be taken off-line although past entries can be viewed in news or clicking here. Videos will be uploaded during this coming week

Please be patient whilst Buymeissen goes through these upgrades. It is for your benefit.

Bonhams to Sell one of the Finest Collection 'The Hoffmeister Collections '' - 08 September 2009

Bonhams to Sell the Finest Collection of Meissen to come on to the market in decade s'. Pieces so rare that they have not been seen until now. As soon as more information is made available, it will be able to be seen on Buymeissen.com. Please register for updates.

Donations asked for on all advices given at Buymeissen.com - 16 August 2009

This is Laurence Mitchell,

If this was an ideal world I would like to be able to offer my services for free but an immense amount of research has gone into continually udating.

Therefore I am asking for donations. You decide how much you want to donate.
This will be implemented on September 1st and you may pay by pay-pal or by sending cheque.

Meissen Manufactory Embraces Change - 03 July 2009

The Meissen Manufactory is about to launch a new line Meissen Jewellery. Please go to Meissen.com for more information.

Boston Museum of Arts presents - 18 January 2009

The Horace Wood Brock Collection

Mounted "Maiblümen" vase
France (Paris), About 1750
Made by: Meissen Manufactory, Germany
Overall: 41 x 30.5 cm (16 1/8 x 12 in.)
Hard-paste porcelain with colored enamel decoration, gilt-bronze mounts
Classification: Ceramics
Accession number: L-SE 1078.1.115
Collection of Horace Wood Brock
read more ...

The German East West Challenge - 11 January 2009

Today has been posted an interesting short story about Meissen. Please go to Forum for further reading.