In 1903, museum director Arthur von Scala decided to mount a major presentation of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory’s output at the Imperial nRoyal Museum of Art and Industry, ÖMKI (today’s MAK). The showing, entitled Ausstellung von Alt-Wiener Porzellan [Exhibition of Old Viennese Porcelain], opened on 21 March 1904, contained over 2,300 objects, and is to this day regarded as an epoch-defining portrait of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory. Alongside museums from Austria-Hungary and Germany, the over 170 lenders included the Imperial House, members of the high aristocracy, and wealthy collectors.

With this exhibition, the Imperial Royal Museum of Art and Industry established itself as a center of research on old Viennese porcelain; the museum was well-equipped to do so, having spent the period between 1865 and 1867 taking over the legacy of the so-called “k. k. Aerarial-Porzellan manufactur,” which closed in 1864. The exhibition was followed in 1907 by the publication Geschichte der k. k. Wiener Porzellan-Manufaktur [History of the Imperial Royal Viennese Porcelain Manufactory] by Josef Folnesics (head of the ÖMKI’s Glass and Ceramics Collection from 1897 to 1914) and Edmund Wilhelm Braun, which is still regarded as a standard work today.

The present showing is meant to document this legendary presentation in terms of its range and quality, as well as make it understandable in material, analog, and digital form. A purpose-compiled database serves to document the objects shown in the former exhibition, with special mention of those objects still present in the collection. This is the MAK’s first project in preparation for the major exhibition planned for 2018 to mark the 300th anniversary of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory’s founding.

Curator Rainald Franz, Curator, MAK Glass and Ceramics Collection
Database Rainald Franz, Leonhard Weidinger