Lot 543 Dα

This unusual model was the first vase designed by long-term KPM employee Heinrich Lang. The use of biscuit and glazed porcelain, the elaborate sculptural appliqués and the use of overglaze and underglaze colours as well as enamels in the decoration demonstrate the technical and artistic mastery of this designer. According to the model book, Lang was assisted in the realisation of his design by the sculptor and modeller Alfred Kamp, who was permanently employed by KPM. The book "Berliner Kunsthandwerk und Kunstgewerbe vom 17. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert" (Berlin arts and crafts from the 17th to the 20th century), published on the occasion of Berlin's 750th anniversary and featuring objects from the holdings of the Märkisches Museum Berlin, presents the vase as the only example illustrating Berlin Art Nouveau. The example shown there has a blue-green gradient glaze. A third variant published by Irene von Treskow shows the model decorated with a brown-green-ochre flow glaze and white biscuit porcelain ornaments. Heinrich Lang was born on 19th September 1868 in the Upper Franconian porcelain producing town of Selb. He began his apprenticeship as a ceramicist there in 1883 at the age of 14 at the porcelain manufactory of Lorenz Hutschenruther. On 2nd September 1887 he joined the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin as a painter and ceramist; in the same year Lang also began his studies, which lasted until 1889, at the academy of the Berlin Decorative Arts Museum. From 1914 to 1933, Heinrich Lang was head of painting at the manufactory. He died in Berlin in 1958.