Hi Everyone.

This is a short guide to spotting original VIENNA and MEISSEN porcelain.

Its list things to look out for, and things to keep in mind. It is partially a shorter, compact version of (with permission):

ROYAL VIENNA FAKES.....GUIDE ON EBAY ...

VIENNA MANAFACTURY/ PORCELAIN History

- Set up 1718, by du Paquier (private enterprise)

- Taken over by Austrian Monarchy in 1744

- Functions until 1864-closing finally in 1866

After closing:

- Vienna Patterns (such as parsley) given/ awarded SOLELY to HEREND of Hungary, which still has exclusive rights to use these patterns on dinnerware

- Vienna shield hallmark, sold to highest bidder, to Czech porcelain manafactury, along with forms and molds.

- The Czechs continue use of shield until early 20th century, when all "hell" breaks loose, and due to copyright problems,a number of other manafacturers start to use it (in Czechia and Germany mainly)

- Although mold sold to Czech porcelain works, the  Czechs, mainly use the logo and buy it for marketing reasons. They do theri own work, hardly using the Vienna molds (ie. not at all). Their work is characterized by HAND PAINTED plates, with mythological and allegorical seens. This continues until the early 20th century (1910s).

- After 1st World War, the quality dramatically slides, as transfer and partial handpainting is used. The Vienne shield is used by nearly everyone. From here on very few quality items are made, once again mainly plates, up till today.

Original Vienna porcelain identification:
- Should have blue shield

- Porcelain should have a slight greyish tint (not always, and not easy to see on pics), but the older it is the tint should be there.

- NO IFS AND BUTS, ALL ORIGINAL VIENNA PORCELAIN WAS ALWAYS DATE MARKED!

All impressed number, except 0-60 (molders and turners), 84-99 and 800-864 (year numbers from 1784-1864) are indications of a forgery.

Pieces before 1784 did not have a date mark, but they are so characteristic, that they are easily recongizable (see below)

- VIENNA SHIELD WAS ALWAYS USED, IN BLUE UNDERGLAZE (AT THE BEGINING, FOR 1-2 YEARS IN RED), AND SOMETIMES JUST IMPRESSED INTO MASS. This is a Vienna shield, not something that look slike it or is similar. No dots, lines etc.

- Early porcelain (before 1784) was dominated by blue underglase japanese type patterns and design.

- VIENNA NEVER USED BRIGHT FONDS (BACKGROUND COLOR) SUCH AS YELLOW, ORANGE, RED, BRIGHT GREEN, SHINY COBALT BLUE.  In 90% of the cases Vienna used white fond (slightly grey). In the 10% the colors are very subtle (ligh blues, sevres blues, pinkish, ligh greenish- thats all- all with a touch of grey...

TO BY CONTINUED WITH ADDITIONAL INFO AND MEISSEN