Meissen Porcelain! 

In the October 1978 issue of Crown Jewels, Jack Tod called for a volunteer who would be willing to serve as "clearing house" for information about foreign porcelains. It needed to be someone who had time and energy to spend on this labor of love, and who, ideally, had already an established interest in collecting foreign insulators. I held up my hand, folks, so here we go, you and I, and with this issue we'll begin, hopefully, a series of monthly articles dealing with foreign insulators. 

So many of you have fallen in love with the odd shapes and weird markings, but are baffled as to what countries the insulators came from, who manufactured them, and what all those hieroglyphics mean. Join the crowd! We'll talk about both porcelain and glass, because it would be unlikely that anyone hung up on foreign insulators would have only one or the other in his collection. Some countries produce or use only porcelain, some only glass. And I don't know about you, but I'm sure not going to turn anything down. I don't remember who that idiot was who walked off and left three gorgeous white porcelains at the telephone company in Luxembourg and said, "Only glass, thank you!" (Ahem!) 

I certainly don't know all the facts, and I'm sure you don't, either; but we can learn an awful lot from each other by pooling what information we do have, collecting and organizing it in one place, and then adding to it as we learn more. Some facts we may never learn, because circumstances make the research impossible; but let's at least begin, and see what we can do to clear up some of the mysteries. But, please, let's leave room for arguments -- friendly ones -- because we may think we know something for sure about an insulator and state it to be a fact, and then have it all turned around the next month by someone who's been there and knows better what the real truth is. That's great! That's how we'll learn. 

The present aim is to catalogue insulators by country and/or markings, by shape, where they were manufactured and by whom. I will need lots of help from you; I can't do it alone, Please send sketches or photos, measurements, color, and, most important, an accurate reproduction of any markings (identified as to incuse, embossed, underglaze ink, etc.). At your request I will mail you directions on how to make shadow drawings and how to lift those markings right off the insulator so they are accurate and can be reproduced onto a piece of paper for the record. This is Jack Tod's method, which he has written up in very simplified form and suggests that I pass it on to you. It is also outlined in great detail in Crown Jewels, November, 1978. 

The shadow drawing or photo is ideal, but I'll be very grateful for a sketch of the insulator, plus any markings, and the measurements. If you know the country or have any information about the manufacturer please include this, too. Any amusing story you can tell us about how you got the insulator would make reading the article more fun. If you have questions you want to ask, and I can't answer them, I'll try to find out what I can for you. This is your column -- the information in it will be built upon what you'd like to share with other collectors. 

There are about 500 foreign insulators in my collection, both porcelain and glass, representing 31 countries, 15 of which I've visited during three different month long summer trips in the last ten years. I helped chaperone a group of high school students touring Europe under the leadership of one Father John Brock, who teaches Latin at St. Joseph's High School in Jackson, Mississippi, where we lived before moving to Houston. Five of my six children have each had the opportunity to go on one of the trips as they reached high school age -- the sixth is scheduled to go with me in 1981, and, very hopefully, this time, my husband, too. 

On the trip in 1975, of the ten countries visited, five were behind the "Iron Curtain", and under Communist control. Our group (26 students and eleven adults) was guest of the German Democratic Republic during our ten day stay in East Germany. We were provided with a chartered bus and a charming young guide named Harold, who saw us through East Berlin, Dresden, Meissen, Leipzig, Eisenach, and Potsdam. On the way from Dresden to Leipzig our bus stopped in Meissen, which is about ten miles out of Dresden. This town is the home of the famous Meissen porcelain China figurines, dishes, clocks, etc., known the world over for their beauty, and they are highly sought after. We had hoped to be able to buy a small piece (it is very expensive), but found none in the town. We were told it is all exported! While there, we did get to go through Albrechtsburg Castle, which was originally built about the 15th Century and served as a home for Meissen's various counts. It was later abandoned, but in 1710 the castle was converted into Europe's first porcelain manufactory, where it remained for 150 years. The present manufacture of Meissen porcelain is carried on in a very modern factory (which we also toured). In the meantime the castle has been restored to its original splendor and is open to tourists. One of the positive signs of the factory once having been there is that a large Meissen porcelain stove, originally used for heating purposes, is found in each of the larger chambers. The stoves are about six feet high and each is more beautiful than the last. Just imagine! 

Harold tried very hard to please -- he took it upon himself to do one nice thing for each of us and was well aware that my attention was divided (and not very evenly!) between the points of historical interest and the telephone poles and power lines. I had tried unsuccessfully to find, buy, beg, borrow or steal just one insulator to take home. So he promised to find me one somewhere, somehow before we had to leave Germany. 

Immediately after touring the castle, Harold left us all standing in the town square, and excused himself briefly to do an errand. In a few minutes he returned holding three grayish white porcelain insulators (complete with heavy metal pins) high over his head. "Meissen porcelain" he said, laughing triumphantly, He'd gone to the factory and bought them -- even had a bill of sale for me so I would not have trouble going across the German border. I wish now I could have found out more about that factory, but our bus was waiting. His mission was accomplished, I was in Seventh Heaven, and Father Brock was muttering something about chaperones needing to tend to the business at hand. 

The insulator is Meissen porcelain only in the sense that it was manufactured in the town of that name, and bears no connection to the real stuff. The countryside is dotted with small factories that make all grades of porcelain everything.

It resembles style #U-780 in Jack Tod's book Porcelain Insulators, and C.D. 184 in Milholland's book Most About Glass Insulators, Bicentennial Edition, p. 226. The threaded pin hole measures a bare 3/4 inch in diameter. The photo does not show the black underglaze ink marking on the skirt, and it was hard to make an accurate sketch, because it was rather carelessly applied with probably an ordinary rubber stamp, then dipped in glaze, and fired. But the figure resembles a pine tree. I don't know its significance. I do know it is German, and probably the logo of the manufacturer, however many plants it may have. This same figure appears on three other insulators I have that were brought to me from Germany. One of these is marked with the figure, plus Bulgaria, 1973; the other two bear only the "pine tree", but these are incuse markings. I presume the one found in Meissen was produced for export to Bulgaria, I have an idea German insulators found their way to several countries. My brother-in-law spent some time in Teheran, Iran. He managed to bribe his gardener into plucking a porcelain insulator from the pole in front of his house. It was German! It makes sense! Germany is porcelain country!