At banquets given by the Viennese court, a number of different series of exquisite painted plates made by the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory were used for dining. They were produced during the age of Biedermeier when the manufactory reached a pinnacle of artistic quality under the management of Conrad Sörgel von Sorgenthal. Various decorators were involved in the painting process, each with their own speciality: figures and compositions, decorative patterns, coloured grounds, thin bands or gilt ornamentation. Each plate constitutes a work of art in its own right.

The pictorial plates from the first decade of the nineteenth century show copies of famous paintings by academy artists. These are predominantly mythological scenes and genre paintings depicting romanticized images of children playing or companies of peasants. The painters employed by the manufactory visited museums in order to perfect their copying technique and hone their skills. This resulted in the production of pieces characterized by the highest painterly aspiration in the execution of subjects taken from paintings on the wells of the plates. The plates proved very popular with purchasers, with the result that even artists who had already made a name for themselves, such as Claudius Herr, Moritz Daffinger and Sigmund Ferdinand von Perger practised as copyists, painting versions of famous paintings by Jacques-Louis David, Angelika Kauffmann and Friedrich Heinrich Füger on porcelain plates that were offered for sale as collector’s objects. 

The Panorama Plates were produced between 1803 and 1808. Intended for soup, they show views with landscapes and urban views from Vienna, Lower Austria, Switzerland and Italy. Specialized porcelain painters recreated the motifs from engravings and publications, in the case of those from Vienna and Lower Austria after engravings by Carl Schütz, Andreas Ziegler and Laurenz Janscha that had been published by Artaria & Co. Die The realization of these motifs in the small format of the plate ledges demanded the use of miniature painting techniques and the adaptation of perspective and composition to achieve narrow, elongated landscapes, which give the whole series a uniform appearance. The gold patterns with relief work bear the painter’s number associated with Anton Kothgasser. In terms of technical precision and painterly finesse, the Panorama Plates are among the finest works produced by the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory.

The Imperial Porcelain Manufactory also made smaller types of tableware that were intended for the middle-class market. For a long time, porcelain, in particular large matching services, remained an expensive luxury that was the exclusive preserve of aristocratic circles. At first it was cups that found their way into the display cabinets of middle-class clientele as collector’s pieces, precious pieces that pleased the eye but were hardly ever used. Keepsake cups were highly suitable as gifts to mark special occasions. Typical of the Biedermeier age are Romantic motifs with commemorative images or mottos. Depictions of famous sights provided a welcome way of preserving precious memories in the pre-photographic era. Other characteristic elements are the bold colourfulness and unusual shapes of these porcelain items. They made a very effective display as striking individual pieces.