The first firing at a temperature of 900 °C is carried out as soon as the body of the crater vase and the affixed handles are sufficiently dry. The base is made and fired separately. This also make it easier to apply the Meissen trademark – the crossed swords – to the bottom of the vase. The underglaze decoration reminiscent of the traditional “Onion Pattern” is painstakingly painted on by hand. The paint is applied to the unglazed porcelain prior to its second firing. Cobalt blue is one of the few colouring substances capable of withstanding glost firing at 1,400 °C and thus produce the combination of blue and white for which the “Onion Pattern” is so well known.

The crater vase is glazed before undergoing its second firing, a process that protects the underglaze painting, including the crossed swords, and engenders the famous gleam of “white gold”. Further colours are now painted atop the glaze of the glost-fired porcelain. Here too the vase’s base and body are tackled separately. The myriad of decors include famous favourites from the manufactory’s over-300-year-old history: “Arabian Nights” by Prof. Heinz Werner, various copperplate engraving-inspired flower paintings, and the truly iconic “Ming Dragon”. The final work stage involves “enamel firing” during which the various overglaze colours fuse with the glaze. This occurs at 900°C in an electric kiln. It is a process that lasts about three weeks as the various layers of paint are slowly baked into the porcelain until they become dazzlingly brilliant.

Available for purchase online, a smaller incarnation of the 2018 reissue measure 36cm in height – a little less than half the size of the 2018 MEISSEN Icons edition. The design, as unique as it is impactful, offers not only a one-off artwork, but also a journey through Meissen’s own expertly established pattern cabinet.