Vase (from a garniture of three) ca. 1725–30 Meissen Manufactory German These three vases (, b–.155a, b) are distinctive for their muted blue color, which was achieved by tinting the porcelain paste rather than by applying a blue ground color after the vases had been glazed. The vases were made during the period in which the Meissen factory was experimenting with ground colors, and adding color to the paste before the objects were thrown or molded must have been one of the methods explored. Very few pieces with tinted color were produced at Meissen (see , .13), suggesting

Vase (from a garniture of three) ca. 1725–30 Meissen Manufactory German These three vases (, b–.155a, b) are distinctive for their muted blue color, which was achieved by tinting the porcelain paste rather than by applying a blue ground color after the vases had been glazed. The vases were made during the period in which the Meissen factory was experimenting with ground colors, and adding color to the paste before the objects were thrown or molded must have been one of the methods explored. Very few pieces with tinted color were produced at Meissen (see , .13), suggesting that the results were deemed unsatisfactory. It has been observed by Ulrich Pietsch that enamel colors do not read well against the tinted ground,[1] and it may have been for this reason that adding color to the paste was abandoned after a period of several years in favor of colored grounds applied over the glaze. The standard format that developed for the use of colored grounds left certain defined areas white, known as reserves. Applying the enamel colors within the reserves allowed the brilliant palette developed by Johann Gregorius Horoldt (German, 1696–1775) to be seen to best advantage against the bright-white Meissen other known blue-tinted pieces of Meissen include a small cup and a small covered pot in the British Museum, London,[2] a small beaker in the Museum fur Kunsthandwerk, Frankfurt am Main,[3] a tankard in the Porzellansammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden,[4] and a beaker vase in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.[5] While the decoration of the latter is closely related to the Museum’s vases, the set of three now in New York reflects the most ambitious works produced in this experimental technique. On each of the Museum’s vases, two polychrome chinoiserie scenes are painted just above the foot, with each scene enclosed by low-relief vines with leaves and clusters of grapes. These applied vines, formed of glazed-white porcelain, provide a s

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