Georg Friedrich Grebner
Nuremberg Faience Factory, 1718
Faience with blue Scharffenerbemalung
10,0 x 54,0 x 40,5 cm
Inv.-Nr. 10/251
Acquired in 1910
Within only a few years of each other four important faience factories were founded in Franconia. They belong to the second generation of German factories following on from factories at Hanau, Frankfurt and Berlin: Ansbach 1710, Nuremberg 1712, Bayreuth 1714 and Crailsheim ca 1715. In Nuremberg the founders were three merchants: Christoph Marx, Heinrich Gottfried Hemmon and Johann Conrad Romedi. The centre of this large eight-lobed piece for the decoration of the table, dated 1718 and signed by the faience painter Georg Friedrich Grebner, is decorated with a Chinoiserie scene framed by a lavish scrollwork border. It dates from the early years of faience production in Nuremberg. Decorated almost entirely in blue-and-white, such tableware initially borrowed heavily from Chinese porcelain painting. Grebner, who was active at the Nuremberg Factory from 1718 at the latest until he left for Bayreuth in 1731, is one of the leading exponents of German faience painting. His work is notable for its originality and superb execution.