The Augarten Porcelain Manufactory in Vienna celebrates its 300th birthday with two big exhibitions.

Founded in May 1718 through the granting of an imperial privilege to make porcelain to Claudius Innocentius Du Paquier, the Augarten Porcelain Manufactory in Vienna set aesthetic standards from that time onward. Under Maria Theresa, the manufactory came into imperial ownership, in the classical period it attained a global reputation. After the Congress of Vienna (1814/15), the filigree pieces found their way into the royal and imperial courts of Europe and into the homes of the aristocracy. The Industrial Revolution caused a decline in the craft, which ended in the closure of the manufactory in 1864. The Augarten Porcelain Manufactory only reopened again in the Augarten Palace in 1923 and has hired contemporary artists to design its porcelain ever since.

To mark the 300th birthday of the Augarten Porcelain Manufactory, the Augarten Porcelain Museum presents its anniversary exhibition "eternally beautiful. 300 years of Viennese porcelain" (March 19 to October 15, 2018). At its center stands the dialog between the designers and the users of Viennese porcelain. Selective exhibits of innovative artists and designers of their respective epochs are shown: Marvels of the Baroque, cheerful objects of the Rococo, shiny gold porcelain of the classical period, simple pieces of the Biedermeier, fine creations of Art Deco, colorful figures of the 1950s and contemporary objects. Part of the presentation focuses on the designers who are currently cooperating with the Augarten Porcelain Manufactory to help shape the exhibition area.

Since its found years, the MAK – Austrian Museum of Applied Arts/Contemporary Art has kept the heritage of the manufactory safe and dedicated itself to the research of porcelain. The exhibition "300 years of Vienna’s Augarten Porcelain Manufactory" (May 16 to September 23, 2018) offers an impressive overview of Viennese developments in the context of Asiatic forerunners and European competitors, such as the manufactories in Meissen, Nymphenburg, Berlin, Frankenthal, Doccia (Italy) and Sèvres (France).

Eternally beautiful. 300 years of Viennese porcelain 1718-2018, March 19 to October 15, 2018
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