• 03. May 2001. - 28. September 2001.

Vince Stingl set up a workshop in Herend in 1826 and began to experiment systematically with making high-quality porcelain. His bold attempt was pursued in a country that had hardly any industry at the time. In a financial sense, he failed, for want of funds and professional resources. However, the workshop survived and his goal was attained by a new owner who succeeded him: Mór Fischer.

By that time, well over a century had passed since the first European porcelain manufactory was founded. Porcelain, during the Hungarian Age of Reform in the second quarter of the 19th century, was still a luxury, but it was no longer the preserve of aristocrats and merchant princes. Already it was entering the homes of the middle classes as well. Fischer, in modern terms, had to decide which market he should cater for. His choice was to concentrate on the most demanding and carefully, even artistically executed work. That decision was to bring the manufactory success for several decades to come.

Although there were departures at some points from the exacting course Fischer had set, his outlook still applies at Herend to this day. Then as now, luxury porcelain was made using the highest quality materials and techniques, for a section of society that appreciated beauty and craftsmanship, and took the utmost pride in its table services.

This exhibition places side by side the porcelain masterpieces of past and present, and in so doing, illustrates the history of the Herend Porcelain Manufactory. It aims to display how the nurturing of artistic and industrial traditions over many generations can be combined with the ceaseless development and perfection that success requires.

The Jubilee Exhibition of our Museum presents peculiar designed treasures

All the great porcelain manufactories vied at the world expositions of the 1860s and 1870s to present articles that called for exceptional technical ingenuity. The Herend Porcelain Manufactory was no exception. At the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, Mór Fischer chose to display the Maria Theresa plate, 90 cm in diameter. This was celebrated in its day as the biggest porcelain object in the world.

The Herend attraction at the Vienna Exposition of 1873 was a gigantic pierced, double-walled vase about one metre high, made in several parts. Th ornamental vase attracted the admiration, among others, of Jacob von Falke, keeper of the ceramics collection at the Austrian Imperial and Royal Art and Craft Museum. Reviewing the exhibition, Falke remarked that Fischer 'finds inspiration by setting himself technical problems, solving them, and then placing before our eyes at each successive exhibition new enigmas to set experts thinking.'

That appreciative comment may have helped to decide Fischer about making another pierced ornamental vase with a cover, similar to the one he had shown at the Vienna Exposition. This work he presented in 1876 to Falke's museum, which was the forerunner of today's Museum für Angewandte Kunst (Applied Arts Museum) in Vienna. The vase has not been seen in Hungary since 1876. It returns for the exhibition to the building that housed the manufactory of Mór Fischer when it was made.