Organization: Imperial Porcelain Manufactory, Vienna
Origin: Austria, Vienna
Date: late 18th – early 19th century
Complex: Breakfast Service (Déjeuner)
Material: porcelain
Technique: gilding, polychrome painting
Dimensions: height with lid 7.5 cm; bowl 4.6 cm; diameter 8.5 cm
Current Collection: The State Hermitage Museum
Inventory Number: ZF-17056
Hermitage ID: 352439
Rudanovsky Connection: Entered the Hermitage in 1919 from the collection of A. K. Rudanovsky.
A gold-ground Viennese porcelain sugar bowl of the late eighteenth or early nineteenth century, from a breakfast service.
Sugar Bowl with a Lid, Breakfast Service (ZF-17056). The State Hermitage Museum.
The bowl entered the Hermitage in 1919, transferred through the Branch for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquities from the collection of A. K. Rudanovsky. It is not currently on permanent display.
It is a small round bowl — 7.5 centimetres high with its lid — completely gilded, with a bouquet of flowers on the front.
The Object
The bowl is round and shallow, with a domed lid and a pointed knop.
It stands on four small feet, and it is gilded over its whole surface. On the front, a bouquet of flowers: a pink rose, a red flower, yellow and blue blossoms, with green leaves.
The lid is gilded and decorated with a stamped pattern of leaves and dots, and it fits into the rim of the bowl.
Sugar
The bowl is a sugar bowl.
Sugar was a luxury in the eighteenth century: it was sold in cones and broken into pieces, and it was served at the table in a covered bowl. The bowl protected the sugar from moisture and dust.
Sugar bowls were part of the tea and coffee service, and they were decorated to match the rest of the set.
The Lid
The lid is domed, with a pointed knop.
It keeps the sugar dry and closes the bowl. The lid is gilded and stamped with a pattern of leaves and dots, and it matches the bowl’s decoration.
The knop is a small sculpture: a pointed finial, easy to grasp and pleasant to look at.
The Knop
The knop is the lid’s handle.
It is a small, pointed cone, gilded like the rest, and it is the point where the object is opened. Its shape is simple and elegant, and it gives the lid its finish.
Knops of this kind were modelled separately and applied before firing.
The Feet
The bowl stands on four small feet.
They are gilded, and they raise the body from the table. The feet give the bowl stability and lift, and they are one of the signs of the service’s quality.
Feet of this kind are a feature of Viennese porcelain of the period, and they appear on the coffee pot, the jug and the bowl.
The Gold
The gold is the set’s colour.
It covers the bowl, the lid and the feet, and it gives the object a rich, warm surface. The gold was applied over the glaze, fired and burnished, and it is the most expensive part of the decoration.
A fully gilded service was a display of wealth.
The Bouquet
The bouquet is the bowl’s ornament.
It is painted on the body, in soft colours, and it includes a rose, a red flower, yellow and blue blossoms. The flowers stand out against the gold.
The painting is delicate, and it turns a gold surface into a garden.
Vienna
The bowl was made in Vienna.
The Imperial Porcelain Manufactory of Vienna was one of the earliest in Europe, and it produced services, figures and decorative objects. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, it was known for its rich grounds, its flower painting and its gilding.
The bowl belongs to that production.
The Déjeuner
The bowl is part of a breakfast service.
The service included a tray, a coffee pot, a cream jug and cups and saucers, all decorated with the same gold ground and flower bouquets. The sugar bowl is one of its smaller pieces.
A déjeuner was a private service, used for a small meal in a private room.
The Shape
The bowl is round and shallow.
It is wide enough to hold a supply of sugar, and shallow enough for a spoon to reach the bottom. Its shape is simple and functional, and its gold decoration follows the curve of the body.
A sugar bowl is a small object, but it has to work: it must open easily, close firmly and keep its contents dry.
The Pattern
The pattern is stamped, not painted.
It consists of bands of leaves, dots and arches, pressed into the porcelain with a tool while it was still soft. The pattern runs around the lid and the feet.
Stamped ornament is a technique of the potter: it is quicker than painting, and it gives a crisp, regular decoration.
The Painting
The painting is the bowl’s ornament.
The bouquet is painted on the body, in soft colours, and it includes a rose, a red flower, yellow and blue blossoms. The flowers stand out against the gold.
The painting is the work of a specialist, and it is the bowl’s chief ornament.
The Collector
The bowl came to the Hermitage with the Rudanovsky collection.
Rudanovsky collected European porcelain alongside paintings, drawings, glass and miniatures, and his collection included Viennese services and decorative objects.
The bowl is therefore a double document: of Vienna in the late eighteenth century and of a Russian collector’s taste.
The Gilder
The gilding was the work of a specialist.
The gilder applied the gold in a liquid medium, fired it, and then burnished it with a hard stone to bring out its shine. The process was slow, and it required a steady hand.
The gold on this bowl is even and bright, and it shows the gilder’s skill.
The Breakfast
The bowl belongs to a breakfast.
A déjeuner was served in the morning, in a private room, and it was a small, intimate meal: coffee, cream, sugar, bread and fruit. The sugar bowl was part of the ritual.
The object is therefore not only a vessel but a piece of a morning: a small ceremony, repeated every day.
The Spoon
A sugar bowl needed a spoon.
The spoon was usually silver, and it rested in the bowl or beside it. It was not part of the porcelain service, but it was essential to the object’s use.
The bowl’s wide mouth and shallow body were designed to give the spoon room, and the missing spoon is a reminder that the object was once part of a working table.
Provenance
The bowl carries the inventory number ZF-17056. It entered the Hermitage in 1919, transferred through the Branch for the Protection of Monuments of Art and Antiquities from the collection of A. K. Rudanovsky.
In the Hermitage
The bowl is preserved in the State Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg and is not on permanent display.
It is a small, rich object, and it preserves a moment of the Viennese table: a gold bowl, a bouquet of flowers and a lump of sugar.
It is a small object, and it has kept its lid, its feet and its flowers together for two hundred years, which is not nothing.
It is a small monument to a spoonful of sugar.
