Meissen crossed swords

How to read it

The swords come from the coat of arms of the Electorate of Saxony. Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, founded the first European porcelain manufactory in 1710, first housed in Albrechtsburg castle in Meissen. Germany’s patent and trade mark office (DPMA) tells how the mark began: a worker, Samuel Stöltzel, took the secret recipe to Vienna, where Europe’s second porcelain manufactory opened in 1718, and Meissen started marking its wares to set them apart. Blue underglaze colour, invented at Meissen in 1720, made it possible to mark the porcelain reliably, and the manufactory inspector Johann Melchior Steinbrück suggested the swords from the Saxon arms. Letter marks such as K.P.M. and M.P.M. were also used until 1730, and the DPMA says the crossed swords had become generally established from 1731. Meissen registered its trade marks on 20 May 1875, once the German Empire’s trade mark law came into force.

Also searched as: crossed swords mark, crossed swords on porcelain, meissen marks, meissen porcelain mark.

How the swords changed over time

The swords themselves date a piece to a period of the factory, though only roughly. William Chaffers’s catalogue of marks (1912 edition) describes the changes. Under J. G. Horoldt, director from 1720 until about 1740, the swords were smaller, sometimes with both points and hilts interlaced; on figures meant for metal mounts the mark was painted very small on the back of the foot so that it showed above the mount. From 1763 a dot was placed between the hilts, a period collectors call “Saxe au point”. Under Count Camillo Marcolini, director from 1774 to 1814, the dot became a star, sometimes with a figure 4. After that the swords were drawn larger and more freely, and in the 19th century a model number was incised in the paste beside them so that trade customers could repeat an order. The DPMA adds that from 1948 a year sign was stamped into the base of every piece.

When the swords were first used

The sources give different dates. The DPMA ties the mark to the blue underglaze of 1720 and says letter marks were still in use until 1730. Chaffers dates the adoption of the Saxon arms as a mark to “in or about 1716”, and gives the monogram A.R., for Augustus Rex, as the first mark of all, used on pieces for royal use from about 1710 to 1712.

Cuts across the swords

A short cut ground through the glaze across or beside the swords is a factory mark too. Chaffers records that white pieces the factory sold undecorated were marked with a cut in the glaze above or through the swords, and that faulty pieces were marked with one or more cuts. Frederick Litchfield’s guide of the same year draws the same line: one cut across the swords means the piece was sold white and painted in an outside workshop; nicks above or below the swords mark a defect.

Look-alikes

Chaffers lists many crossed marks that are not Meissen’s. In the town of Dresden, Meyers placed an M between the sword hilts, Thieme used a mark like the head of a broad arrow, and another firm stamped the word Meissen in the paste. Samson of Paris put an S between the hilts. The Limbach mark is two crossed letter Ls, and the Courtille mark is two crossed torches. English factories used crossed swords too: Minton on a plate with its name in red, Worcester on transfer-printed services, and Derby on some services alongside its own mark. Derby’s own mark has crossed lines under a crown, which Llewellynn Jewitt also called crossed swords (see the Royal Crown Derby page). Meissen porcelain is often called Dresden china, which Chaffers calls common but wrong; the Dresden marks page covers the decorating studios of that city and the A.R. monogram one of them used.