Gotzkowsky moved the factory to the Leipziger Strasse, and made a number of high profile appointments, including Friedrich Elias Meyer, a pupil of the legendary modeller Johann Joachim Kändler at Meissen.

It was rescued by the enterprising merchant Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky who bought the stock of porcelain, and hired Wegely’s chief modeller, Ernst Heinrich Reichard. Moreover, during the war, the Prussian army had occupied the town of Meissen, and so the King switched his focus to the porcelain produced there.īy 1757 Wegely was bankrupt, and the factory in ruins. Wegely’s factory soon fell apart, however: financial difficulties owing to the Seven Years’ War meant that royal financial backing was no longer so secure. He began work on building a factory on the Friedrichstrasse in Berlin. The King agreed, and granted Wegely a number of royal privileges, including exemption from import duties and the assurance of a monopoly in the city. Wegely was somehow in possession of the arcanum and proposed the idea of a ceramics factory to King Frederick II of Prussia. The first attempt to found a porcelain factory in Berlin came in 1751, with a wool merchant by the name of Wilhelm Caspar Wegely. The two regions were rivals.īy the time that the two regions unified in 1871, they both contained long-established porcelain factories: this is the reason why Germany today can boast having both KPM and Meissen as its foremost ceramics manufacturers. In the 18 th and 19 th Centuries the area we now call Germany was in fact several different countries: Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia to the north, while the town of Meissen was part of the Electorate of Saxony further south. The real origins, however, of KPM – as with all European porcelain – lie in the Saxon town of Meissen, the first place in Europe to discover the secret to producing Chinese ‘white gold’.Īll later 18 th Century European porcelain manufacturers were born out of an attempt to copy or steal this secret formula, known as the arcanum.ĭespite both Meissen and Berlin being located in modern-day Germany, the arcanum could not be shared between the two places because of the peculiarities of the country’s history. The first two factories would both go bankrupt before finally being taken over directly by King Frederick II of Prussia in 1763. Unlike its cousin factories at Meissen, Sevres, and Vienna, attempts to create a porcelain factory in Berlin did not get off to an auspicious start. © Manfred Brueckels via Wikimedia Commons KPM's present-day factory and museum near the Tiergarten, Berlin. It was because of its close associations with the state that the name KPM – along with Meissen – would become synonymous with German porcelain, just as with Sevres in France, Royal Worcester in England and Royal Vienna in Austria. It also benefited from important financial backing: first from the Prussian crown, and later from the unified German state. They were particularly associated with the popular mid-18 th Century Rococo style, and with its replacement by the more austere Neoclassicism of the early 19 th Century.Īntique KPM porcelain wares from these periods are widely-collected and sought-after today.Īcross the 18 th and 19 th Centuries, KPM was one of Europe’s most consistently commercially successful ceramics enterprises. In the 18 th and 19 th Centuries, KPM specialised in the production of porcelain dinner services, figurines, painted plaques, vases and more.

It was founded in 1763 and continues to produce porcelain to this day. KPM, or Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur ('Royal Porcelain Factory' in English), is Berlin’s oldest porcelain factory and Germany’s second oldest. So why is it not more famous? What is KPM porcelain? It was one of the most innovative and technologically sophisticated of its time, and its output rivalled the leading factories in Europe. KPM was a fundamental part of the landscape of the European decorative arts in the 19 th Century, and was one of the most prolific producers of luxury porcelain in the period. Indeed, very occasionally, hidden away in this cornucopia, you might come across a plaque, teacup or small figure made at the Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur, or KPM. Though they are stuffed with iconic pieces like Ming vases, Dutch Delftware, and works by Sevres and Meissen, the vitrines of these galleries are also home to lesser-known gems. The ceramics galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London are treasure-troves for porcelain enthusiasts.

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