Service Cart

A dinner service basket in the grass pattern. The basket is part of a dinner service made in the porcelain manufactory in Vienna. Established in 1718, the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory was the second, after Meissen, porcelain manufactory in Europe and continued to operate until 1864. Dinner, breakfast, tea, coffee and chocolate services formed a significant part of the Vienna Porcelain Manufactory's production, especially from the 4th quarter of the 18th century onwards. The dinner service, whose part was acquainted by the Museum, was created when the Viennese manufactory was headed by Matthias Niedermayer (1805 - 1827). The purchased part of the service consists of several dozen pieces: shallow plates, soup tureens, salad bowls, fruit baskets, platters, salt cellars, a jug and a pitcher. The service was purchased by the Museum in Łańcut in 1964 from Franciszek Żaba. Teresa Grzybkowska erroneously believes that the service was ordered by the owner of the Łańcut Castle, Elżbieta Lubomirska (1736 -1816), for Henryk Lubomirski, who was her pupil (T. Grzybkowska, Kobieta wodzem chwalebnego czynu [The Woman as the Leader of a Glorious Deed], Warsaw-Toruń 2018, p. 228, il. 144). It is a service in the classicist style. It was made of milky white porcelain. It is decorated with a pattern of field grasses painted with two shades of green: grass and buckwheat, and dark grey in the form of delicate lines plasticising the drawing of grasses. The green strands of grasses are varied by tiny flowers, painted in rusty red and cornflower blue, and light yellow marking their centres. The service basket for fruit is round, openwork, on a round foot and a movable base on four legs. The inside, at the bottom, is decorated with a painted composition of field green grasses and red and blue flowers. The edges of the vessel are emphasised with gilded stripes. Barbara Trojnar