MARKS AND SIGNS ON VIENNESE PORCELAIN
The Viennese shield, impressed year numbers, „Weißdreher” (turner) numbers, painter
numbers, mass and glaze marks, „Bossierer” (moulder) letters and „Bossierer” (moulder)
numbers — all these signs, found on Viennese porcelain, are well-known and were thought,
until recently, to have been sufficiently researched and published.
Some of the terms just mentioned are quite untranslatable and therefore subsequently used
in their original wording; the „Weißdreher” were workmen forming the white table wäre; the
„Bossierer” (moulders) workmen forming the porcelain figures; moulder and modeller (who
created the model) should not be confused.
The great exhibition of Viennese porcelain organized at the Austrian Museum for Applied Art
in 1904 displayed over 2,000 specimens. The scientific work was carried out by Josef
Folnesics and Edmund Wilhelm Braun, the same who wrote 1907 the Standard book on the
Viennese Porcelain Factory (now out of print). The ceramic literature which has followed
since has had nothing essential to add to the questions about the marks on Viennese porce
lain which were handled in the work, and refers again and again to the painter numbers pu
blished in 1907.
In order to meet the large public interest, an exhibition of Viennese porcelain was displayed
again in 1970. The problem of imitations and fakes of the Viennese shield was considered in
the exhibition „Viennese Porcelain - real orfaked?” atthe same museum (1976/77).
My publications „Der Bindenschild als Porzellanmarke” and „Wiener Porzellan - Original,
Kopie, Verfälschung, Fälschung” treat in detail the forging and imitation of the Viennese
mark, the blue or impressed shield.
To promote a better understanding of the marks found on Viennese porcelain, the most
important findings of those publications are summarized here.
THE SHIELD („BINDENSCHILD”)
The shield was used as the mark of the Viennese State Factory from 1744 tili 1864. While the
factory was still privately owned by its founder Claudius Innocentius du Paquier — that is, from
1718 tili 1744 - no factory mark was customary. We know, with certainty, that as of 1749 the
shield was painted in blue under the giazing and that betöre 1749 it was impressed; one
assumes, without being able to öfter any clear evidence, that overglaze shields painted in
colour (presently known: in red, purple, gold, black) stem from the period 1744 to 1749.
The underglaze-blue shield was regulation from 1749 tili 1827, the impressed one from 1827
to 1864. Although underglaze-blue marks are also found on pieces made during the 1860’s,
this was done, primarily, only to meet the wishes of foreign customers.
All attempts at dating, trying to decide from the form of a shield which period it belongs to, are
purely speculative and ought, therefore, to be refrained from. The form of a mark alone teils us
very little. This is understandable when one considers that the painting of a mark in blue on the
fired but unglazed article was a thoroughly minor activity. We can speak with certainty about a
forging of the mark only when it is painted in overglaze-blue, when it is printed in colour, or is
applied by means of transfer printing. The customary shield used from 1827 tili 1864 was a
so-called „Blindstempel” (an impressed colourless mark).
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