Chessboard with Figures
Johann Joachim Kändler, Johann Friedrich Eberlein, Johann Gottlieb Ehder
Meissen Porcelain Factory, ca 1740
Hard-paste porcelain with onglaze colour and gold
33,0 x 33,1 cm
Inv.-Nr. R 5621-5653
From the Royal Collections
Gallery 90
Even in the early days of the Meissen Porcelain Factory, ca 1717, delicate porcelain chess sets were being made for King Augustus the Strong. These were followed by more chess sets for the Saxon court. Such porcelain chess sets were also invariably mentioned in price lists. After the Meissen Factory's most celebrated modeller, Johann Joachim Kaendler, began working there in 1731, the chess pieces produced by the Factory became especially distinctive. A particularly original model was that of the 'Turks against Moors'. Matching the contemporary taste for exotic fashions, the pieces on the opening squares are subtly painted to represent Oriental adversaries. The decoration of the middle squares is so strongly colourful that it recalls textile patterns. Yet this board does not have matching pieces. Not until 1753 was a different set of pieces, called the Columnar Set, made after Kaendler's model and painted in colours to match the board.
des Bayerischen Nationalmuseum
des Bayerischen Nationalmuseum
