News - A day at the Cumner Museum and Art Gallery Jaclksonville

Location: Blogs The Meissen Blog
Posted by: Laurence Mitchell	21/01/2007
Where would you go if you wanted to see a truly great collection of Meissen porcelain. Of course you would say the cities of Meissen and Dresden. Undoubtedly both these two cities have thousands of pieces of the world’s best Meissen. If you lived in the UK you would be fortunate to be able to visit a number of museums where you could see great rarities. The British Museum in Central London, has a small selection of Böttger, and other 18th century Meissen that is housed in display cabinets with other manufacturers and of course the V & A in South Kensington. Unfortunately, the V &A ‘s collection is closed to the public as is the Reichsmuseum in Amsterdam and will be closed for some time. You could travel to The Hermitage in St. Petersburg or the Tokapi in Instanbul. Of course every major museum in the world has wonderful and great rarities of Meissen porcelain. In North America you would see Meissen at the Met in New York or in Pittsburg, or in Chicago etc. But what if you wanted to see a great private collection. In the UK undoubtedly one of the most famous is the collection at the Cecil Higgins Art Gallery in Bedford. Here you can see some of Meissen’s great rarities, strong in models by J.J. Kaendler and a small selection of tableware together with other European factory rarities including an a life size swan tureen made at Chelsea. Next month you will be able to learn more about the collection at the Cecil Higgins. But where would you go to see a truly unique single owner collection of Meissen tableware some of which was once owned by Augustus the Strong and at one time a part of his personal collection. During the past two days I spent my time at the Cumner Art Gallery and Museum on the Banks of the St. Johns River, in Jacksonville Florida. Where the Cumner stands out is not only the collection of Meissen but the beautiful English gardens that sits between the museum and river. Of course, apart from the refreshing walk around the gardens, my interest lay with the collection of more than 500 pieces housed in some 14 display cabinets. A truly unique collection as it is solely Meissen porcelain tableware with the exception of one single Kaendler Group. Whereas many museums display only a fraction of their collections, The Cumner displays the majority of the collection, bequeathed to them by Constance I. and Ralph H. Wark. The Wark collection is undoubtedly a truly great collection and a must for every Meissen enthusiast to visit. As an example to the strength of the collection, Nowhere else can you see in one gallery fifty teapot’s and tea caddies of all shapes and sizes from Boettger to the middle of the 18th century. You can see a complete tea set and garniture of five vases by Höroldt. The collection is strong in the Chinoiserie design a mixture of both the Chinese and Japanese. Here you can see painting after the style of Kakiemon and Arita from Japan. Another display case, houses a selection of blue and white wares taken from the style of Kang Hsi with a pair of tall tea caddies and a great copy of an Octagonal deep dish from Nankin where much of the exportation of all Chinese porcelain originated from during the 17th and 18th centuries. Another cabinet houses more than twenty pieces of Böttger stoneware as does one other of examples of porcelain made for the aristocracy of the time where can be seen several pieces of the Swan Service by J. J. Kaendler. It was during my second day of searching through the collection I came across two truly great pieces. The first was a Böttger porcelain hexagonal teapot circa 1715-20 painted in coloured enamels of a white ground. This was a period of Meissen’s production when the manufactory began experimenting with colour and this is one of the earliest examples known. The other piece was in the style of the Chinese Famille Rose. In China during the 18th century millions of famille rose plates were exported to Europe. As far as Meissen porcelain is concerned, a Meissen example is a great rarity. I could of course have spent a whole week at the museum but unfortunately my unwell ness from Bronchitis was catching up with me and it was time for me to get some needed rest. But if any of you live in Florida or are planning to travel to then it would be my recommendation to visit the Cumner Museum and Art Gallery in Jacksonville.

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