121 applied and, where it was used, took the form of neo-Classicist beading, key-fret bands, acanthus friezes and openwork egg-and-dart or bead-and-reel ornamentation. The painting was executed more rudimentarily and was often sloppy. In the sphere of underglaze decoration, patterns such as “Children à la Raphael”, “Blue Onion”, “Strawflower” or “Blue German Flowers” were singled out for mass production in an attempt to accommodate new customers and fashions (figs. 4 – 6). But, by the 1790s, the Blue Onion Pattern had already been deleted from the Manufactory’s price-lists and was thenceforth only available to special order. With the Napoleonic wars raging, demand dwindled accordingly. Blue-on-white wares were particularly badly hit and now came to be produced in increasingly small quantities, to the point where they were shelved altogether for a time in the early 19th century. Meissen Blue Onion Patterns for (almost) everyone Urgently needed modernisation measures were finally taken when Carl Wilhelm von Oppel (1767 –1833) was appointed Director in 1814. Heinrich Gottlob Kühn (1788 –1870), the new inspector and supervisor for the technical department, who took up his post at the same time as von Oppel, introduced circular multi-level kilns that considerably enhanced firing output, ran them on coal and installed the first steam engine. His grasp of chemistry enabled him to make advances in the making of paints. He invented chromium-oxide green as a new underglaze colour in 1817, for instance, and in 1830 bright gold. Both likewise led to reductions in the cost of painting and firing, since bright gold did not need to be burnished once fired. He produced the blueprint, finally, for the new Manufactory building in the Triebisch Valley, one of the most modern factories of its age that allowed work processes to be further rationalised. The new premises paid for themselves within around 20 years and the Manufactory was largely self-supporting. Germany had yet to become a single sovereign state in the early 19th century and was, instead, a haphazard conglomeration of smaller nations loosely conjoined under the umbrella of the German Federation. There was no uniform trade and transport legislation in place, nor was there any uniform system of weights, measures or currency. The customs barriers each of the states imposed were a considerable hindrance to intra-German trade. The setting-up of the German Customs Union in 1834 and the lifting of intra-German customs barriers
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