The Dresden Porcelain Project - The East Asian Porcelain from the Collection of Augustus the Strong

Project organizer Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Research program Europa / Welt

The Dresden Porcelain Project - The East Asian Porcelain from the Collection of Augustus the Strong

The subject of the international research project are the extensive holdings of East Asian porcelain from the collection of Augustus the Strong. This collection forms the core of the Porzellansammlung Dresden, along with the earliest products from the first European porcelain manufactory in Meissen.

The Augustean holding is one of the world’s largest and most important reference collections of 17th- and 18th-century East Asian porcelain. Of the formerly more than 29,000 East Asian ceramics, about 8,000 are still extant at the Porzellansammlung. The preserved historical inventories of the Japanese Palace provide new insights into the early modern trade in East Asian porcelain and its reception and appreciation in Europe.

Results and aims

The project recorded and digitised this unique reference collection and its sources in their entirety for the first time. In close collaboration with specialists worldwide these unique holdings were researched and studied. The results of this undertaking are published on an innovative, digital platform, The Royal Dresden Porcelain Collection. This platform showcases the complete historical holdings of East Asian porcelain, accompanied by studies on various aspects of the collection’s history, aimed at both non-professionals and experts alike. It links data and content in such a way that they can be explored and accessed in different contexts.
To the digital platform The Royal Dresden Porcelain Collection

Project leader

Cora Würmell, Curator of East Asian Ceramics at the Porzellansammlung

Academic supervision

Prof. Dr. Christiaan Jörg, Professor Emeritus of Art History at Leiden University and former Curator of Oriental Ceramics at the Groningen Museum

Project members

Karolin Randhahn, research assistant at the Porzellansammlung

Ruth Sonja Simonis, research assistant at the Porzellansammlung

Mark Poysden, English language editor

Yi Chen, freelance research assistant, Chinese language editor

Madlin Marenec, freelance research assistant

Adrian Sauer, freelance photographer

Support is also provided by a renowned team of more than 35 international senior and junior experts from Europe, China, Japan, Taiwan and the USA.

Project funding

Bei Shan Tang Foundation, Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung, Museum and Research Foundation, Freundeskreis der Porzellansammlung im Zwinger e.V., Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation for International Scholarly Exchange (CCKF), Ceramica-Stiftung Basel, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant, Japan Foundation, Peabody Essex Museum, Department of Culture and Sports Exchange, VolkswagenStiftung, Nishida Foundation, Idemitsu Museum of Arts, Keramiekstichting, Smeele Van der Meulen, F.W. Hempel Familienstiftung, American Ceramic Circle (ACC) and numerous private sponsors.

Publications

Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, ed. The Royal Dresden Porcelain Collection. Dresden, 2024. doi.org/10.58749/skd.ps.2024.rpc.

Sarah Fraser, Mio Wakita, Lianming Wang (eds.), Women Cross Media. East Asian Photography, Prints, and Porcelain from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Heidelberg, arthistoricum, 2022 [online: doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.995].

Ruth Sonja Simonis, Microstructures of Global Trade. Porcelain Acquisitions through Private Networks for Augustus the Strong, Heidelberg, arthistoricum, 2020 [online: doi.org/10.11588/arthistoricum.499].

Karolin Randhahn, Die Porzellansammlung Dresden. Zu den Verkäufen des historischen Bestandes bis 1920, in Ostasiatische Zeitschrift 40 (2020), 42-57.

Christiaan Jörg, The Dresden Porcelain Project, Lecture, Jingdezhen University & Ceramic Council, Jingdezhen, November 2019.

Karolin Randhahn, Experiences from the Digitalization Projects about the Porcelain Collection of Augustus the Strong, Workshop “Digital Benin”, Museum am Rothenbaum. Kulturen und Künste der Welt (MARKK), Hamburg, 26.10.2019.

Karolin Randhahn, Neue Methoden zur Untersuchung der königlichen Porzellansammlung August des Starken und August III., Conference “8. Forum Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens“, Institute for East Asian Art History, Heidelberg University, 05.10.2019.

Workshop and research on Japanese porcelain vessels with lacquer applications, SKD, Porzellansammlung, 26.08.-01.09.2019.

Karolin Randhahn, Writing the Japanese Palace inventories 1721 – 1727 and 1779, Conference “Porcelain Circling the Globe – International Trading Structures and the East Asia Collection of Augustus the Strong (1670–1733)”, SKD, Porzellansammlung, 14.06.2018.

Ruth Sonja Simonis, The King’s personal shopper: Count Lagnasco’s porcelain acquisitions in the Netherlands for Augustus the Strong, 1716/1717, Conference “Porcelain Circling the Globe. International Trading Structures and the East Asia Collection of Augustus the Strong (1670–1733)”, SKD, Porzellansammlung, 14.06.2018.

Cora Würmell, The Dresden Porcelain Project: The 18th century collection reassessed, Porcelain Circling the Globe, Conference “Porcelain Circling the Globe. International Trading Structures and the East Asia Collection of Augustus the Strong (1670–1733)”, SKD, Porzellansammlung, 14.06.2018.

International Workshop on the evaluation of research results on the royal East Asia collection, SKD, Porzellansammlung, 11.06.-12.06.2018.

Cora Würmell, A Microcosm of Early Globalization. The East Asian Porcelain in the Collection of August the Strong, in National Palace Museum Bulletin 49 (2016), 53-68.

Christiaan Jörg, The Dresden Porcelain Project, International Symposium, Kyushu Ceramic Museum, Arita, Japan, 13.11.2016.

Cora Würmell, Forgotten Treasure – the Dresden Inventories of the 18th Century, Symposium “Cross Media Porcelain”, Heidelberg University, 01.04.2016.

Cora Würmell, The Dresden Porcelain Project – Microstructures of a Global Trade, Symposium “Stimulation and Reanimation, Cultural artistic exchanges between Asia and Europe”, National Palace Museum Taipei, Taiwan, 28.10.2015.

Cora Würmell, Neue Forschungen zum ostasiatischen Porzellan am Hof August des Starken, in Dresdener Kunstblätter 59 (2015), vol. 1, 31-37.

Cora Würmell, Japanese Porcelain from the Royal Collection. The Porzellansammlung Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, in Arts of Asia 44 (2014), no. 4, S. 28-40.

Colloquium with lectures by the students of the Institute for East Asian Art History (Heidelberg University) and the professors: Sarah Fraser, Heidelberg University; Stacey Pierson, SOAS London; Dawn Odell, Lewis & Clark College, Portland Oregon, in preparation for the joint exhibition “Women Cross Media. Photography, Porcelain and Prints from China and Japan”, Porcelain Collection, 8.7.2016; Organisation: Agnes Matthias, Cora Würmell.