Today I saw this exhibit Teapot and heating stand on display at the Rijks Museum, Amsterdam. It was produced in Berlin c. 1750-1775 at the Kőningliche Porzellan Manufaktur (Royal Porcelain Factory) of King Frederick II of Prussia. Reminiscent of a silver teapot, its design was based an older model by Ernst Gotzowy, the factory’s original owner. Gotzowy, being financially strapped, was forced to sell his business to the king in 1763.
Why am I making much of the teapot that I saw earlier today?
Several things come to mind.
- For time immemorial, human beings have been using their gifts to create, making objects that are sometimes simply ornamental, but quite often designing functional items that are amazingly beautiful!
- It’s not unusual for the very best to be made for the richest, promoting their sense of self-importance, encouraging them to rate the recipient as better than the worker.
- It’s nothing new to note that many an artist may have the skill and patience to create the most beautiful craft but lack the business sense or wherewithal to make his/her skill pay the way.
- Highly placed persons have always been the more fortunate when it comes to repossession of (dispossession really) of the one who lands in bad fortune’s way.
- Those who curate antiques remind us that craft and skill are nothing new. It’s amazing what those before us have managed to achieve, without the gadgets that are commonplace today. I don’t want to use the word technology because it sometimes seems they were far higher tech than modern humans. What technology did human beings use to raise the stones at Stonehenge? What mathematically precise devices were in play for the construction of Angkor Wat? Why are the Aztec and Mayan complexes on one side of the world so similar to those from the other side when viewed from above? There are a million and one questions that pop up in my mind; and every time I visit a museum, so many more questions come to mind.
What do I say? Enjoy this piece of art that here I share with you. Share your craft and skill. You’ll soon be gone. What you leave behind might stay on for a very long time.