Chocolate cup and saucer with dragons and phoenixes

Manufactory Meissen Manufactory German

On view at The Met Fifth Avenue in Gallery 201

A service decorated with red dragons was delivered to Augustus III, elector of Saxony and king of Poland, between 1734 and 1739. The Red Dragon pattern is now thought to have originated at Meissen, but its concurrent appearance on Chinese and Japanese porcelain obscures the source of its invention. The phoenix in the center, as a symbol of the female (yin) principle, complements the dragon as that of the male (yang) principle.

Chocolate cup and saucer with dragons and phoenixes, Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present), Hard-paste porcelain painted with colored enamels over transparent glaze, German, Meissen

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Chocolate cup and saucer with dragons and phoenixes, Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present), Hard-paste porcelain painted with colored enamels over transparent glaze, German, Meissen
Chocolate cup and saucer with dragons and phoenixes, Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present), Hard-paste porcelain painted with colored enamels over transparent glaze, German, Meissen
Chocolate cup and saucer with dragons and phoenixes, Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present), Hard-paste porcelain painted with colored enamels over transparent glaze, German, Meissen
Chocolate cup and saucer with dragons and phoenixes, Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present), Hard-paste porcelain painted with colored enamels over transparent glaze, German, Meissen
Chocolate cup and saucer with dragons and phoenixes, Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present), Hard-paste porcelain painted with colored enamels over transparent glaze, German, Meissen
Chocolate cup and saucer with dragons and phoenixes, Meissen Manufactory (German, 1710–present), Hard-paste porcelain painted with colored enamels over transparent glaze, German, Meissen

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