Royal vienna antiques

ROYAL VIENNA ANTIQUES By marks4antiques.com

A typical early-20thC Royal Vienna Porcelain Display Plate

Although the term Royal Vienna is also synonymous with the name of the original Royal & Imperial Porcelain Manufactory under the patronage of the Hapsburg royal court in Vienna (1718 – 1864), it has now been adopted to refer to a large class of items made in that style. These include mostly Porcelain Display Plates and Porcelain Figurines or Figural Groups as well as Porcelain Urns, Bowls, Centerpieces, Clocks and other grand decorative pieces.

The Royal Vienna style is characterized by its elegant neoclassical designs on objects of regular shape or form. Most are very appealing and extremely detailed. Some are also adorned with additional ornamental elements in Bronze or Brass, normally referred to as “Ormolu”.

Original artifacts from the Hapsburg era are absolutely rare and can be found in fine museums or eclectic private collections. Indeed, the vast majority of Royal Vienna items we encounter nowadays in the antiques market were made by literally hundreds of companies or porcelain decorative workshops located mostly in Continental Europe and from around 1850s to Present.

A 19thC Tiffany & Co. Porcelain Case Clock exhibiting several characteristic decorative details in the Royal Vienna style

Recognizing Royal Vienna porcelain marks can be tricky at best. Makers’ marks are usually a variation of the so-called beehive mark, inspired by the Hapsburg’s royal seal or bindenschild, which when upside-down looks like a beehive. However, many companies used other logos and signed their pieces with a variety of marks unrelated to the beehive symbol.

Our ceramics marks section at marks4antiques.com services, includes hundreds such marks used on Royal Vienna masterpieces and even covers several fake marks found on recent Asian reproductions in the same style. In spite of the similarity in many of the marks used on such items by their various makers, when using a proper reference guide, it is often possible to differentiate between the several companies that made them and also determine their true age.

A mid-19thC Royal Vienna Center Bowl with Painted Scenes of European Scholars and Ormolu

Prices for Royal Vienna items have remained high over the years, even for examples that were made in early to mid 20thC, primarily due to their remarkable decorative appeal. Older or late 19thC vintage artifacts are even more valuable, mostly because they are difficult to find.

Appraising Royal Vienna antiques consists of checking for comparable pieces that have sold at auction and then extrapolating a value. Very few were mass produced, except of course for recent reproductions, so their uniqueness calls for locating sales records of items of similar grandeur, size or decorative embellishments and then comparing them carefully in order to arrive at a reasonable estimate. Our values4antiques section at marks4antiques.com includes A turn-of-the-century Royal Vienna millions of auction price records with photos and Framed Porcelain Plaque descriptions to make this task easier and more fun totally online 24/7 from any smart phone, tablet or computer.

For more on this topic, see our article on Royal Vienna and the beehive mark.

For examples sold at auction see our page on ROYAL VIENNA PORCELAIN Historical notes, values & marks.

A late-19thC Royal Vienna Porcelain Figurine depicting Queen Europa

About marks4antiques.com - Currently celebrating its 10th anniversary of service, marks4antiques.com is dedicated to providing the largest and most updated research tools to help its members identify and appraise antiques & collectibles. Registered members have access to comprehensive visual reference methods with thousands upon thousands of images of makers’ marks & hallmarks displayed in Shape or Letter Categories for fast access or can use the proprietary Name or Initials Search features. Also includes a huge database of millions of actual auction records and uses a ‘smart’ search that quickly deciphers key terms using advanced software technology to yield accurate and relevant results. The An early-20thC Royal Vienna Pair of company is located in the San Francisco Porcelain Urns with Neo-Classical designs Bay area since 2004.