Date: Wednesday, March 12
Time: 20:00 to 21:20 JST
Format: Zoom
Fee: Free
Guest Speaker: Ruth Sonja Simonis
Title: Augustus the Strong and His Passion for Japanese Porcelain
Summary
Augustus the Strong (1670–1733), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, was a great patron of the arts, under whose reign Dresden developed into an important cultural center in Europe.The Elector recognized early on the potential of art as a means of demonstrating power and prestige and constantly expanded his art collection. His reign also marked the re-invention of porcelain outside Asia, resulting in the creation of Europe’s first hard-paste porcelain in 1710, produced by the Meissen manufactory. However, Augustus the Strong was initially particularly interested in East Asian porcelain, which was brought to Europe by the Dutch East India Company via the Netherlands. At the beginning of the 18th century, the Elector amassed an important collection that comprised around 25,000 Japanese and Chinese porcelains by 1727. Around 8,500 of these objects are still preserved today in the Porzellansammlung (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden).
The Elector’s plan was to furnish an entire palace with East Asian and Meissen porcelain. This project required large quantities of ceramics, which were brought to Dresden in various ways. These endeavours are documented by contemporary letters, acquisition lists, invoices, and other correspondence. The Palace Inventory, drawn up from 1721 and continued until at least 1727, also provides information about the additions of East Asian porcelain by wholesalers and retailers.
It is not clear from the Elector’s own writings which type of porcelain he preferred. However, it must be assumed that he particularly favoured Japanese porcelain. The products from the region around Arita were produced in smaller numbers than their Chinese equivalents and were less frequently available on the European market, making them correspondingly sought-after by the European nobility.
The lecture presents the development of Augustus the Strong’s collection of East Asian porcelain and focuses on the collection of Japanese ceramics. It shows special objects in the context of their acquisition history, their reception in early modern Europe, and their influence on Meissen porcelain production in the 18th century.
Portfolio
Ruth Sonja Simonis studied East Asian art history and Japanese studies at the Free University Berlin. Until 2024, she was a research assistant at the Porzellansammlung (Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden), where she worked on the research project ‘Microstructures of Global Trade’ and the digital catalogue of the Porzellansammlung’s East Asian holdings from the former collection of Augustus the Strong. In 2024, she received her doctorate at the Free University Berlin for her research on acquisition strategies for East Asian porcelain and trade networks in early modern Europe.
RSVP: by March 10
Registration site: https://cw3saoj.wildapricot.org/event-6049886
***Members wishing to register guests: please contact the General Meeting Managers (generalmeetingmanagers@cwaj.org) for the registration code. With this code, guests can sign up through “non-members/online.”
General Meeting Team:
Director: Shigeko Nagaoka
Program Coordinator: Ko Iwata
Meeting Manager: Joan Rodgers Doi
Zoom and WA support: Rina Jiang and Rumi Nagashima
Contact: generalmeetingmanagers@cwaj.org
