The factory’s craftsmen and decorators worked with porcelain to its limits. The Meissen menagerie, a set of life-size models of birds and animals, was commissioned by Augustus in 1730 his Japanese Palace at Dresden.
Almost 600 specimens were planned for production. However, creating and firing the largest pieces presented such technical difficulties that the drain on the factory’s output and resources could not be sustained and by 1739 the project was abandoned. Even so, 458 pieces were listed in 1736 and they are a breath-taking example of the achievements of Meissen’s arcanists, sculptors and decorators, which remain unparalleled in the history of ceramics.
The arcanists were responsible for developing a new porcelain body (or 'paste') that could bear the weight of the sculptures during the second, high temperature glaze firing, as the material softened in the kiln. Often pieces came out of the kiln with large firing cracks, especially at the base, where the greatest stresses occurred during the firing.
Johann Joachim Kaendler joined Meissen in 1731 and quickly gained fame as the foremost modeller of the time. The majority of the models for the Japanese Palace animals were by Kaendler. His earliest pieces were based on drawings, but he soon created extraordinarily vigorous and naturalistic models based on the animals in Augustus’s live menagerie.
Although Augustus wanted his animals to be in natural colours, the larger sculptures were painted in unfired pigments by the court lacquerer, Christian Reinow because the risk of further damage from an enamel firing was too great. Sadly, the bright colours Reinow used have discoloured over time and in many cases have been completely lost.
Pieces from the Meissen menagerie can be seen in museums around the world, including the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, and at Waddesdon Manor, in Buckinghamshire.