Royal Vienna

An army mercenary soldier named Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier, a native of Trier who struggled to discover the methods and materials for producing hard-paste or true porcelain on his own, but unsuccessfully, established this Austrian porcelain manufactory in 1717.

Only after the arcanist from Meissen, Samuel Stölzel, joined the enterprise in Vienna in 1718, did Du Paquier learn the secret of making true porcelain. The first period of porcelain making yielded works in a style influenced by the Chinese taste or chinoiseries such as that illustrated by the book by Stalker and Parker, A Treatise of Japanning and varnishing (London, 1688). The Du Paquier era lasted from 1720-30.

During this time a pseudo or stylized Chinese imperial mark was used on Vienna Porcelain with no other sign or signature. Du Paquier’s factory was productive yet suffered continually with financial problems and finally in 1744 the company was sold to Maria Theresa, with Du Paquier having received a pension before dying in 1751.

The State period commenced in 1744 and ended in 1784. During this era marks on Vienna porcelain were underglaze blue, red or incised, and were derived from the arms or shield of the House of Austria. The Sorgenthal period that followed is named after Konrad von Sorgenthal, a textile-manufacturer from Linz. He managed to lead the factory to new achievements in the Neo-classical taste between 1784-1805, introducing iridescent ground-colors, relief decoration, and unglazed or biscuit figurines. Sorgenthal died in 1803.