In 1758, Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg established a porcelain factory in Ludwigsburg. With the help of experienced specialists and his generous financial support, the production was soon of highest quality.
Ornate vase decorated with garlands.
After several failed attempts at manufacturing porcelain, Joseph Jakob Ringler (1730–1804) became the factory's second manager in 1759. He had previously acquired the knowledge necessary for mixing and firing porcelain in Vienna, Höchst and Nymphenburg. Ringler built up the company and operated it for more than forty years and faced many challenges in this time. Firewood was always in short supply as well as the suitable clay for making porcelain.
Coffee pot with the famous scale pattern.
Renowned artists ensured that Ludwigsburg porcelain was of the highest quality. For a good 20 years, between 1759 and 1779, Gottlieb Friedrich Riedel (1724–1784) was the head painter for the factory. He designed incredible patterns, original vase shapes and figural sculptures. He also created the famous scale pattern that became the trademark of the Ludwigsburg factory. It its heyday, the business, located on the Schorndorfer Straße in the Jägerhof, supported up to 180 employees.
The egg, created for the 255th anniversary of the factory, depicts a porcelain factory.
Duke Carl Eugen repeatedly commissioned his court sculptors to create models for the porcelain factory. The figures by Johann Christian Wilhelm Beyer (1725–1796) are some of the most important creations to come from the Ludwigsburg porcelain inventory. The musical soloists he created with artfully twisted postures are still entirely in the Rococo tradition. Other figures by his hand, however, already show influences of early Classicism.
Filigreed masterpieces: a clavichord player and a guitar player.
Gilded and colorfully painted porcelain.
Since the 18th century, items made of porcelain were coveted collectibles, royal table decorations and representative gifts. Princess Maria von Teck (1867–1953) received a special dowry in 1893 when she married Georg the Duke of York, who ascended to the British throne in 1910 as King Georg V: a 158-piece dining set, that was supposedly commissioned by Duke Carl Eugen von Württemberg in 1770.
Duke Carl Eugen had to temper his spending and subsequently, after 1771, drastically decreased his contributions to the Ludwigsburg factory. When other large orders failed to materialize, the factory began having financial difficulty. Its brief final period of prosperity began in the early 19th century during King Friedrich I's reign. However, the first Ludwigsburg porcelain factory was forced to close in 1824.
Mold – emboss – polish: the various steps of porcelain manufacturing.
In 1947, Otto Wanner-Brandt revived the Ludwigsburg porcelain factory and in 1971 it became a GmbH. Still, the Ludwigsburg porcelain factory's 250-year history finally came to an end in 2016 due to a lack of demand for fine porcelain. Production was stopped and the factory was dissolved. Historic treasures from the Ludwigsburg porcelain factory are on display in the palace ceramics museum.
