Jug with ‘Indian Flowers’ and Large Bird
Manufacturer:Fayencemanufaktur Fulda / Fulda Faience Manufactory, between 1741 and 1744
Painting: Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck (1714-1754)
Dimensions: 16,5 cm (h)
Materials: Faience, impressed mould, decorated; polychrome overglaze painting
Inv. No. Ov 74
This Cologne jug with its magnificent colourful decoration of ‘Indian flowers’ and a large bird was painted by the highly talented porcelain and faience painter Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck. He was born in 1714 in Biala (Poland). From 1720, his family lived in Saxony and in 1727, aged only 13, Löwenfinck started his apprenticeship as a porcelain painter at the Meissen manufactory. In 1734, he was employed as a ‘painter of coloured flowers’, but in October 1736 he fled from Meissen to Bayreuth, henceforth only painting faience.
Records confirm that he was in Fulda in March 1741, where he stayed until the end of 1744. Like many artisans of the time, he then continued to move on, first to Weisenau near Mainz, where he tried to run his own faience factory, then, in 1746, to Höchst, where he played a key role in the foundation of the faience manufactory. After falling out with other partners in the Höchst manufactory, Löwenfinck tried to set up his own business in Schönbornslust near Koblenz (March 1749). However, only two months later, in May 1749, he went to Strasbourg to work with Paul Anton Hannong, who made him director of the Hagenau factory. Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck died in November 1754 at the age of only 40.
