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Müller Volkstedt MV Irish Dresden Lace The Millenium Collection Periwinkle Blue Kissing Angel
This is a stunning and very rare periwinkle blue Kissing Angel handmade in fine porcelain by Irish Dresden from The Millenium Collection. The deep blue color of the lace with its 24 gold carat dots was especially created for the Millenium in the year 2000. The skirt of her ballgown is decorated with delicate porcelain lace and hand painted by master craftsmen in Müller Volkstedt's factory at Dromcollogher, County Limerick. There are two very small chips in the lace as shown in the last photo that are fairly difficult to see in the folds of her voluminous gown. Müller Volkstedt's angels are dressed in fine lace, which being dipped in special clay then miraculously transforms into porcelain china upon firing at 1290 degrees Celsius and is then delicately handpainted. On the base is the Dresden MV backstamp and MV Irish Dresden The Millenium Collection Kissing Angel Ireland. This gorgeous angel stands approximately 5 inches tall by 3-3/4 inches in diameter. There is no original box.
Müller Volkstedt, was established 1907 in Thuringia, in a region known as the green heart of Germany. Volkstedt became famous for producing figurines featuring "Dresden Lace", which was created through a process whereby real cotton lace was dipped in soft porcelain paste and then fired. The fabric burned away, leaving a fragile porcelain lace shell, which though delicate could withstand the test of time. Müller's creations were identified by the trademark crown over the letters "MV" (for Müller Volkstedt) which has survived to the present day as the brand logo of Irish Dresden. In 1945, bombs rained down on Volkstedt and the Müller factory was destroyed. Remarkably, however, some of the valuable old master moulds were found undamaged in the cellars below the ruins. Müller's descendants Johanna Saar, who was Herman's niece, and her husband Oscar, began the process of rebuilding the factory and by the following year, 1947, Müller-Volkstedt was again producing unique lace porcelain figurines of the most exquisite quality. The rebirth of MV was to be short lived. The Russian occupation in 1950 was an even greater challenge to the survival of the company. It was clear that MV could no longer exist in the town of Volkstedt, which gave the company its name. Escape plans were made for the family to escape from this new threat through the Black Forest. In the camouflage of the night sky, Johanna Saar loaded the family car with the most valuable original master moulds, and, driving through a minefield, she managed to successfully cross the border into West Germany. She had salvaged a crucial part of the MV heritage. Now she could only hope and pray that her children, who were being taken separately by other family members, would also successfully negotiate their way across the border. Finally, after a desperately anxious wait, the family was safely reunited. Their daugher Sabina, who was a tiny girl at the time, can remember walking alone through the army checkpoints with Senta, her German Shepherd dog. So with the Saar family reunited, and with the original moulds intact, they soon re-established the MV tradition in a small town at the edge of the Black Forest. They continued to produce Müller Volkstedt lace porcelain figurines there for the next decade. The Saar's spirit of adventure was not exhausted as they realized that with the original moulds, their knowledge of the technical processes, and the inherited artistic influences, theirs was a truly mobile business. As long as they had a workforce, who could produce the figurines to meet the exacting standards of the MV tradition, they could move anywhere. In 1962, Ireland came calling. Attracted by the casual lifestyle and friendliness of the Irish people, the Saar's decided to transfer their lace porcelain business to Dromcolliher in the South West of Ireland situated on the Cork border in the beautiful Golden Vale region. A small town in Ireland had given birth to Irish Dresden. The rest, as they say, is history.
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