![](\"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/25fae339-1466-fdbf-c655-d663602cb72a_720-1.png\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nJohann Joachim K\u00e4ndler (after), Jacques or Philippe Caffieri (bronzes attributed to), Lazare Duvaux (probably delivered by), Pair of candelabra with birds of prey<\/em>, detail, circa 1745, Galerie L\u00e9age Hard-paste porcelain, the much-coveted \u201cwhite gold\u201d of the eighteenth century, was initially the exclusive preserve of the Meissen manufactory. Its artisans and chemists developed a paste, colors, forms, and decorative motifs that revolutionized the art of European ceramics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meissen Manufactory, Johann Friedrich B\u00f6ttger (under the direction of), Johan Jakob Irminger (modeler), Bottle<\/em>, circa 1713\u20131720, New York, Metropolitan Museum of Arts (inv. 1974.356.499)<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1701, the Prussian Johann Friedrich B\u00f6ttger (1682\u20131719) fled to Saxony to escape the King of Prussia, who sought to seize his valuable alchemical knowledge. It was ultimately the Duke of Saxony, Augustus II the Strong, who had him imprisoned and required him to continue his research. Passionate about Asian porcelain, the Duke took a particular interest in the manufacturing techniques of this precious material, until then unknown in Europe. In 1709, the alchemist announced that he had discovered the secret of hard-paste porcelain. The following year, Augustus II founded the Meissen manufactory and tasked B\u00f6ttger with refining his discovery. Saxony thus became the first European region to produce porcelain with the same qualities of whiteness, translucency, and strength as Chinese and Japanese porcelain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meissen Manufactory, Vase<\/em>, circa 1734, Versailles, Palace of Versailles and Trianon (inv. VMB 14405)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a9 RMN-GP (Palace of Versailles) \/ \u00a9 Franck Raux<\/p>\n\n\n\n The first porcelain pieces were produced in imitation of Asian wares. Augustus II the Strong made his vast collection available to the artisans\u2014by the late 1720s he owned nearly 25,000 pieces\u2014to serve as models. In 1720, the painter Johann Gregorius H\u00f6roldt (1696\u20131775) joined the manufactory and introduced a crucial technique, overglaze enamel painting (\u201cpetit feu\u201d). This process made it possible to apply a wide range of vibrant colors to porcelain, more faithfully reproduce imported models, and invent new decorative schemes. Endowed with a fertile imagination, H\u00f6roldt fostered a taste for chinoiserie and designed numerous scenes compiled in an album known as the Schulz-Codex<\/em>, which workshop painters subsequently drew upon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 1727, the Duke undertook major renovations to transform his Dutch Palace, which housed his collections of Asian and Saxon porcelains, into an immense Japanese Palace with an ambitious decorative program. Beginning in 1730, he reorganized the display of the works: Asian porcelains would be exhibited on the ground floor, while the manufactory\u2019s productions would be displayed on the upper level. This arrangement was symbolic: Saxon porcelain was now considered superior to its Eastern counterpart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meissen Manufactory, Johann Joachim K\u00e4ndler (after), Vulture devouring a cockatoo, 1734, S\u00e8vres, National Ceramics Museum (inv. MNC 2275.5)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a9RMN-Grand Palais S\u00e8vres Cit\u00e9 de la c\u00e9ramique-Adrien Didierjean<\/p>\n\n\n\n To decorate his Japanese Palace, the Duke of Saxony called upon Johann Joachim K\u00e4ndler (1706\u20131775), who joined the manufactory in 1731. He commissioned ambitious naturalistic sculptures, including life-size birds. K\u00e4ndler conceived compositions of unprecedented scale, demonstrating remarkable sensitivity, attention to detail, and technical mastery. He also produced smaller sculptural groups\u2014genre scenes and a variety of animals\u2014that were highly prized by European collectors. The precision of their modeling and their lively poses reveal a light and playful taste. The porcelain master also designed table services, including the magnificent Swan Service for Count von Br\u00fchl, as well as tureens and candelabra. By this time, the \u201cwhite gold\u201d had been fully mastered by the artisans of Meissen and adapted to European taste and customs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Meissen Manufactory, Johann Joachim K\u00e4ndler (after), The Four Parts of the World: Europe<\/em>, 1745, Paris, Louvre Museum (inv. OA 8052)<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u00a9 2007 GrandPalaisRmn (Louvre Museum) \/ Jean-Gilles Berizzi<\/p>\n\n\n\n Saxon porcelain was highly sought after throughout Europe, particularly in Paris, where marchand merciers<\/em> and fa\u00efenciers<\/em> (ceramic dealers) sold and transformed it. The fa\u00efenciers<\/em> Jean-Charles Huet and Henri Le Brun appear to have held a near-monopoly on Meissen porcelain in Paris until the late 1730s. It was subsequently found in the shops of renowned merchants such as Lazare Duvaux (1703\u20131758) and Thomas-Joachim H\u00e9bert (1687\u20131773). They mounted Meissen sculptural groups in superb gilt-bronze settings, transforming them into candelabra, clocks, or inkwells. They sometimes combined them with pieces from Vincennes-S\u00e8vres or Chantilly in complex compositions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A pair of candelabra with birds of prey, probably delivered by Lazare Duvaux around 1745, will be exhibited at our booth at TEFAF Maastricht. The two porcelain groups, based on K\u00e4ndler\u2019s models of 1734 and 1739, are framed by sweeping rocaille gilt-bronze arms attributed to Jacques (1678\u20131755) or Philippe Caffieri (1714\u20131774). Brilliantly conceived, they reveal a subtle balance in which the bronze extends the porcelain compositions in a single, fluid movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Johann Joachim K\u00e4ndler (after), Jacques or Philippe Caffieri (bronzes attributed to), Lazare Duvaux (probably delivered by), Pair of candelabra with birds of prey<\/em>, circa 1745, Galerie L\u00e9age Bibliography:<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hard-paste porcelain, the much-coveted \u201cwhite gold\u201d of the eighteenth century, was initially the exclusive preserve of the Meissen manufactory. Its artisans and chemists developed a paste, colors, forms, and decorative motifs that revolutionized the art of European ceramics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5525,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","inline_featured_image":false,"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5508","newsletter","type-newsletter","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":{"url_news1":{"simple_value_formatted":"","value_formatted":"","value":"","field":{"ID":438,"key":"field_64c00914a1189","label":"URL","name":"url_news1","aria-label":"","prefix":"acf","type":"url","value":null,"menu_order":0,"instructions":"","required":0,"id":"","class":"","conditional_logic":0,"parent":437,"wrapper":{"width":"","class":"","id":""},"only_front":0,"frontend_admin_display_mode":"edit","no_values_message":"","wp-typography":"none","default_value":"","placeholder":"","wpml_cf_preferences":1,"_name":"url_news1","_valid":1}}},"mcc_id":null,"mcc_type":null,"mcc_status":null,"mcc_create_time":null,"mcc_send_time":null,"mcc_emails_sent":null,"mcc_delivery_status":null,"mcc_content_type":null,"mcc_archive_url":null,"mcc_long_archive_url":null,"mcc_plain_text":null,"mcc_content_html":null,"mcc_recipients":null,"mcc_list_id":null,"mcc_list_name":null,"mcc_segment_text":null,"mcc_recipient_count":null,"mcc_settings":null,"mcc_tracking":null,"mcc_social_card":null,"mcc_report_summary":null,"mcc___links":null,"mcc__edit_lock":null,"mcc__edit_last":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/newsletter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5508"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5939,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/newsletter\/5508\/revisions\/5939"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
H: 75 cm \u2014 29 1<\/sup>\u20442<\/sub> inches \u2014 W: 42 cm \u2014 16 1<\/sup>\u20442<\/sub> inches \u2014 D: 36 cm \u2014 14 1<\/sup>\u20444<\/sub> inches<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/galerieleage.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/cdf8b537-1318-2788-2c1c-6ddab594a2ac_720-1.png\")
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H: 75 cm \u2014 29 1<\/sup>\u20442<\/sub> inches \u2014 W: 42 cm \u2014 16 1<\/sup>\u20442<\/sub> inches \u2014 D: 36 cm \u2014 14 1<\/sup>\u20444<\/sub> inches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Antoinette Fa\u00ff-Hall\u00e9, Comment reconna\u00eetre une porcelaine de Saxe du XVIIIe<\/sup> si\u00e8cle<\/em>, \u00c9ditions de la r\u00e9union des mus\u00e9es nationaux, 2008
Mathieu Deldicque (dir.), Porcelaines de Meissen et de Chantilly. La fabrique de l\u2019extravagance<\/em>, \u00c9ditions Monelle Hayot, 2020<\/p>\n\n\n\n