KPM Cup and saucer, porcelain, 1890-95, Waldenburg, Silezia, Germany. Jugendstil. Hand painted. Both the cup and saucer were decorated with floral motifs and git floral motifs adorn the rims of cup and saucer, however they are quite worn due to usage. Here is the short history of the firm which produce the cup and saucer.

The first factory in the town of Waldenburg was founded by C.S. Rausch in 1820 and even if the business only had a single kiln it was still fairly successful. Attracted by the local possibilities a second factory was opened by the businessman Traugott Hayn in 1829. These two facilities had a quite interesting fate as a decorator from Thuringia at the Rausch facility changed to Hayn and took over the business in 1831; this worker was of course no other than Carl Franz Krister who in 1833 also bought the company from Rausch for an amount of 15500 Taler. It can only be speculated on how Krister actually was able to pay for all this but it appears that before he even started to work for Rausch he already owned a kaolin deposit near the city of Meißen in Saxony which he then used as source for raw material, the required quartz was delivered from a quarry in Schreiberhau (today Szklarska Poręba).

Straight from the start Krister tried to catch customers by imitating the base mark of the 'Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur' (KPM) in Berlin and being very cautious he decided to use a simple vertical bar instead of a sceptre. When KPM Berlin shortly afterwards added the initials 'KPM' to their mark, Krister also added these letters and successfully defended the addition (standing for 'Krister Porzellan Manufaktur') even after the KPM Berlin tried to stop him through a court decision. From the end of 1844 onwards the KPM Berlin changed the strategy and introduced the imperial eagle with sceptre and orb over the initials 'KPM' and Krister introduced an own version of the mark by simply omitting the scepter and orb.

But Krister would not have been successful by only relying on copying the famous 'KPM' mark. The quality of his products was exceptionally good and he soon had lots of wealthy customers with their own requirements and over time his business became quite well known and further recognition was achieved through the medals his products earned at the Paris exhibition during 1867. But Carl Krister died the same year at the age of 65 and the business fell to the Haenschke heirs. It should be noted that at the time he died the former small business had developed into one of the largest firms led by a single person next to the factory of Carl Tielsch in Altwasser. Anyway, the Haenschke family further improved the factory that employed 800 workers in 1913 and it remained in their hands until they decided to change it into a limited corporation in the year 1920."Click here to see the reference.