Porzellansammlung
(Porcelain Collection)

No ceramics collection in the world can claim higher quality and greater magnitude than the Dresden Porzellansammlung (Porcelain Collection). It owes its existence to August the Strong, who once dubbed his passion for a material that is as costly as it is fragile the »maladie des porcellaines« – Porcelain Disorder.

Comprising some 20,000 pieces of Chinese, Japanese and Meissen porcelain, the collection was originally to be placed on display in the ”Japanese Palais” in the Dresden Neustadt, a ”porcelain palace” purchased and altered especially for this purpose. This plan, however, was never carried to realization.

The present-day arrangement of the works on the walls of the Zwinger essentially corresponds to the king’s plans for his porcelain palace. Here Chinese vessels and figures of the Song, Ming and Kangxi periods as well as Japanese Imari and Kakiemon porcelain from Arita predominate. The development of Meissen porcelain from the time of its invention in 1708 to the late eighteenth century can also be traced in works of superior artistry.