Five Meissen Blue Onion Demitasse Quatrefoil Cups and Saucers 1825-1924

Five Meissen cup and saucers in the more unusual quatrefoil shape, with crossed swords dating from between 1825 and 1924 and impressed marks. They are painted in underglaze blue in the blue onion pattern.

All are in excellent condition with no cracks or restorations. The gilding shows no signs of rubbing.

In 1700 the ruler of Saxony, Augustus the Great, imprisoned the alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, following his claim he could make gold. He couldn’t, but he did discover the formula for porcelain, and in 1710 the Meissen factory was established. Known as “white gold”, Meissen produced some of the finest porcelain ever made in Europe, and remains one of the most sought-after names in European ceramics.

The blue onion pattern was introduced in 1731. The difficulty of producing a reliable cobalt blue that could withstand the high firing of porcelain was finally resolved in the late 1720s. There were several variations of the blue onion pattern based on Chinese motifs, and it is still being produced by Meissen today. A modern blue onion cup and saucer costs 199 Euros. The quatrefoil shape, used from the 1730s, is no longer available.