- Museum number
- 1981,0610.1
- Description
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Plate; hard-paste porcelain, decorated with a border of stylised roses, the monogram `HC' beneath one of the roses and a double gold line round the rim, all stencilled in gold.
- Production date
- 1903 (circa)
- Dimensions
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Diameter: 25.20 centimetres
- $Inscriptions
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- Curator's comments
- Text from J. Rudoe, 'Decorative Arts 1850-1950. A catalogue of the British Museum collection', 2nd ed. 1994. no. 38.
Christiansen trained as a painter and graphic artist in Hamburg and then at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Munich. He studied in Europe and America before spending the years 1899-1902 at the Darmstadt artists' colony.
According to Zimmermann-Degen, M., 'Hans Christiansen, Leben und Werke eine Judendstilkünslers' Konigstein/Taunus 1981, 269-70, no. K45, the rose motif was designed by Christiansen for a drinking-glass service and was adapted to decorate existing porcelain shapes which were not of Christiansen's design. The dinner service was decorated on blanks made by L. Hutschenreuther: for examples bearing the Hutschenreuther factory mark, see Brussels, Palais des Beaux-Arts, 'Jugendstil', 1977, no. 339; Darmstadt, Kunsthalle,'Ein Dokument Deutscher Kunst 1901-1976, 5 Vols. Darmstadt 1976, Bd 4, no. 103, and Ulmer, R. 'Museum der künstlerkolonie. Darmstadt. Katalog, Darmstadt n.d.(1990), cat. no. 65. The Darmstadt retailer Louis Noack may have been involved in the commissioning of this service, obtaining cheap blanks from Hutschenreuther.
There was a matching coffee service also decorated by Krautheim & Adelberg but using blanks made by Porzellanfabrik F. Thomas, Marktredwitz, Oberpfalz, Bavaria. For a sweet dish bearing the Thomas factory mark, see Heller, C.B., 'Kataloge des Hessischen Landesmuseums Nr. 12. Jugendstil. Kunst um 1900'. Darmstadt 1982, no. 52. This sweet dish was bequeathed to the Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt, by Frau Adams-Christiansen, together with other pieces from the service bearing the Krautheim & Adelberg mark only. The Porzellanfabrik F. Thomas was founded in 1903. The service is therefore dated c.1903, although Christiansen had used similar rose motifs in his designs for the interior furnishings of his house at the time of the Darmstadt Exhibition of 1901. The rose decoration for the porcelain service was also executed in blue-grey (see Zimmermann-Degen, who acknowledges Herr Georg Krautheim, son of the manufacturer, for information about the porcelain service).
For Hutschenreuther, see Hohenberg, Museum der Deutschen Porzellanindustrie. '175 Jahre Hutschenreuther. Ein Beitrag zum Firmenjubilaum 1814-1989', ed. W. Siemen.. Hohenberg 1989.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1981
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1981,0610.1
