Dresden Porcelain Collection, Porcelain museum in Zwinger Palace, Dresden, Germany
The Dresden Porcelain Museum sits within the Zwinger Palace and holds a large collection of ceramic works from China, Japan, and Europe gathered over centuries. The pieces range from delicate blue and white plates to large vases and show different styles and craft techniques from various regions and periods.
The collection was built in the early 18th century by Augustus the Strong, who had a passion for East Asian porcelain. This soon led to the founding of the famous Meissen factory, which produced Europe's first true porcelain.
The collection shows how craftspeople learned from the exchange between Asian and European techniques, visible in how Chinese and early Meissen pieces sit alongside each other. You can see directly how European makers admired Eastern forms and decoration and brought them into their own work.
The collection occupies the southern part of the Zwinger, entered from the courtyard side of the palace complex. Only about 2,000 of the roughly 20,000 pieces are on show, so allow time for the East Asian gallery added in 2006 and the Meissen rooms. The porcelain display is one section among several in the Zwinger, so check which entrance serves it before crossing the courtyard.
In 2021, researchers at the collection identified a Chinese Ru ware bowl that had long been mistaken for a younger Korean piece. Fewer than a hundred Ru ceramics are known worldwide, so the find was called a sensation. The bowl had sat in storage unrecognised.
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