Die Leiden des jungen Werther
Sugar Bowl
ca. 1790 (made)
ca. 1790 (made)
| Artist/Maker | |
| Place of origin |
The serving of the fashionable hot drinks tea, coffee and chocolate was often the focal point of domestic social rituals in the eighteenth-century. Porcelain tea and coffee sets with matching trays (déjeuners) were made for one or two persons to serve themselves in private apartments. The design and elaboration of the decoration of the sets signalled their owner’s taste and wealth.
Tea and coffee were not served together at the same time, so the same saucers were often used with both tea and coffee cups. The design of tea cups evolved as the eighteenth century progressed, but tea cups were generally lower and more open in shape than coffee cups. However, it is clear from the records at Sèvres that in France at least certain shapes could be used interchangeably for coffee or tea.
This is one of a small number of tea and coffee sets very finely decorated with scenes from Goethe's hugely successful novel The Sorrows of Young Werther first published in 1774. It was made at the Meissen porcelain factory in 1789. All the known services have the same vessel shapes, and certain of the components are painted with the same subjects and scenes. Some of this decoration is after preliminary design drawings by Johann David Schubert (1761-1822), who worked as teacher of drawing at the factory's drawing school from 1786 and who became principal painter at the factory in 1795, and some of Schubert's designs were in turn copied from prints.
Tea and coffee were not served together at the same time, so the same saucers were often used with both tea and coffee cups. The design of tea cups evolved as the eighteenth century progressed, but tea cups were generally lower and more open in shape than coffee cups. However, it is clear from the records at Sèvres that in France at least certain shapes could be used interchangeably for coffee or tea.
This is one of a small number of tea and coffee sets very finely decorated with scenes from Goethe's hugely successful novel The Sorrows of Young Werther first published in 1774. It was made at the Meissen porcelain factory in 1789. All the known services have the same vessel shapes, and certain of the components are painted with the same subjects and scenes. Some of this decoration is after preliminary design drawings by Johann David Schubert (1761-1822), who worked as teacher of drawing at the factory's drawing school from 1786 and who became principal painter at the factory in 1795, and some of Schubert's designs were in turn copied from prints.
Object details
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| Parts | This object consists of 2 parts.
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| Materials and techniques | Hard-paste porcelain painted in enamel colours and gilt |
| Brief description | Sugar bowl from a breakfast service of porcelain painted in enamel colours with scenes from Goethe's Sorrows of Young Werther, and gilt; probably painted by Johann David Schubert, made by Meissen porcelain factory, Germany, ca. 1790 |
| Physical description | Sugar bowl with lid from a breakfast service. Decorated with scenes in round or oval medallions from Die Leiden des jungen Werther [The Sorrows of Young Werther], a novel written in 1774 by Johann Wolfgang Goethe (1749-1832). |
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| Gallery label | Tea and coffee service
About 1789
This elaborate service is painted with scenes from Goethe’s hugely successful The Sorrows of Werther (1774). The novel is about a young man torn apart by hopeless passions. It satisfied a late 18th-century liking for a literature of ‘sensibility’, which explored states of human passion, distress and tenderness, and provoked an emotional response in the reader.
Germany (Dresden)
Made at the Meissen factory
Porcelain painted in enamels and gilded(07/12/2015) |
| Object history | Part of a tea and coffee service (1328 to L-1871). |
| Historical context | Goethe's novel The Sorrows of Young Werther became a bestseller soon after its publication. The story parallels elements of Goethe's own experience. Werther falls in love with Lotte, a 19 year old who has already been engaged for four years to Albert, a man 11 years her senior. After failing to distance himself from Lotte and his futile love for her, Werther finally chooses suicide as his only release from his torment. |
| Literary reference | Goethe, Johann Wolfgang. <font -u>Die Leiden des jungen Werther</font> [The sorrows of Young Werther], 1774. |
| Summary | The serving of the fashionable hot drinks tea, coffee and chocolate was often the focal point of domestic social rituals in the eighteenth-century. Porcelain tea and coffee sets with matching trays (déjeuners) were made for one or two persons to serve themselves in private apartments. The design and elaboration of the decoration of the sets signalled their owner’s taste and wealth. Tea and coffee were not served together at the same time, so the same saucers were often used with both tea and coffee cups. The design of tea cups evolved as the eighteenth century progressed, but tea cups were generally lower and more open in shape than coffee cups. However, it is clear from the records at Sèvres that in France at least certain shapes could be used interchangeably for coffee or tea. This is one of a small number of tea and coffee sets very finely decorated with scenes from Goethe's hugely successful novel The Sorrows of Young Werther first published in 1774. It was made at the Meissen porcelain factory in 1789. All the known services have the same vessel shapes, and certain of the components are painted with the same subjects and scenes. Some of this decoration is after preliminary design drawings by Johann David Schubert (1761-1822), who worked as teacher of drawing at the factory's drawing school from 1786 and who became principal painter at the factory in 1795, and some of Schubert's designs were in turn copied from prints. |
| Bibliographic reference | Müller-Scherf, Angelika. Wertherporzellan Petersberg : Michale Imhof Verlag GmbH & Co., 2009 ISBN 9783865684592. This sugar bowl is catalogue no. 7.5a, p. 105. It illustrates an early incident in the novel, described by Werther in his letter dated 15th May. He recounts how much he enjoys chatting to the young women and children who work and play by the village well. One day he arrives at the well and sees a servant girl struggling to place a large water pot on her head. Werther immediately goes to her assistance. The same scene is on the reverse of the Stuttgart teapot, (6.4b, p.92) and on one side of the private collection sugar bowl (8.4b, p.115). The scene on the other side of this sugar bowl, catalogue 7.5b, depicts Werther on a country lane by a river at the moment when he meets a poor deranged man, shabbily dressed. The man tells Werther he is gathering flowers to offer to his princess. This leads Werther to profess his envy for this deluded individual who is happy only because he has lost his mind and mourns man’s destiny that allows a man to be happy only when he is a child, ie before he has acquired reason, or after he has lost his mind. The source is Schubert’s drawing, catalogue 31, p. 141. Compare another scene at the well illustrated on the tray, 1328-1869, exhbition catalogue 7.1. |
| Collection | |
| Accession number | 1328D/1, 2-1871 |
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| Record created | April 7, 2004 |
| Record URL |
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