#Exhibit of the Month

German porcelain is highly prized among antique collectors for its exceptional material quality, originality, and the meticulous craftsmanship of its decorative design.
The museum's collection preserves five figurines from one of the oldest porcelain manufactories in the Thuringia region of Germany - the statuary group known as *"The Musicians"*, crafted at the Volkstedt manufactory. These pieces entered the museum's holdings in 1991, acquired from a resident of Chișinău. With undeniable historical and artistic value, they bear the distinct imprint of the Rococo style.
The Volkstedt manufactory has a long-standing tradition in producing figurines, including those depicting musicians. In 1760, Georg Heinrich Macheleid - inventor of hard-paste porcelain in Thuringia - founded a production workshop in Zitzendorf, which was relocated to Volkstedt in 1762. Macheleid led the manufactory until 1764. Over time, the factory changed ownership and management multiple times. Under the direction of Christian Nonne, it flourished between 1767 and 1797, a period marked by significant artistic development. Volkstedt began creating figurines that would later gain international recognition.
It was during this flourishing period that the museum's porcelain statuettes, titled *"The Musicians"*, were produced. They depict five “putti”: four playing musical instruments (flute, mandolin, horn, and pipe), while the fifth conducts. Each figurine is entirely handcrafted - from modeling to painting - and delicately adorned with pastel tones and gilded details, capturing the playful movement and refined artistry of each musician. The base is made of mass-colored porcelain in a rare grey-green hue. The contrast between green, white, and gold accents lends the ensemble an unusually delicate appearance. These ornamental features are characteristic of the Rococo style, which emerged in France and is closely associated with the reign of King Louis XV.

The mark applied to the figurines consists of two crossed forks, clearly rendered in underglaze blue, with slightly blurred paint - a detail that helps date their production. Because the crossed forks often resembled the crossed swords of the Meissen trademark, the Volkstedt manufactory was compelled to change its mark starting in 1787. Initially represented by a single fork, the mark briefly returned to two forks before being replaced in 1800 by the graphic symbol "R", referencing the town of Rudolstadt. Therefore, the brief period during which the two-fork mark was reinstated - and during which the museum's figurines were likely produced - is estimated to be between 1787 and 1800.

The statuettes range in height from 10 to 18 cm and are preserved in relatively good condition.

These late 18th-century German porcelain pieces, now on display, are exceptionally rare. They stand as true works of art by German craftsmen and serve as important historical testimonies to the evolution of porcelain manufacturing in Germany.

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Events Archive

XXXth Annual Scientific Conference with International Participation “History. Archeology. Museology” held online

Chișinău, October 29-30, 2020

The annual scientific conference held by the National Museum of History of Moldova over the years has turned into a prestigious forum that brings together famous historians, archaeologists and museographers from the country and abroad. This year's conference communications featured thematic diversity, new methodological approaches, and interdisciplinary research. A significant part of the communications was based on the results of new archaeological investigations, the study of original archival sources, offering new interpretations of known sources.

The conference brought together over 90 participants from 10 countries: Moldova, Romania, Ukraine, Poland, Germany, France, Tajikistan, Lithuania, Georgia, and the Russian Federation.

During the two days of the conference, 65 communications of researchers from different institutions were heard: from museums (Moldova, Ukraine, Romania, Russian Federation): the National Museum of History of Moldova, the National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History, the Odessa Museum of Archeology (Ukraine), the Moldova National Museum Complex Iaşi (Romania), the Arad Museum Complex, the Vasile Goldiş Western University (Arad), the Kuskovo Museum (Moscow), the Peter the Great Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (the Kunstkamera) of the Russian Academy of Sciences; from universities (Moldova, Germany, Russian Federation, Romania, Poland, France, Georgia): the Moldova State University, the Ion Creangă State University, Freie Universität Berlin (Germany), the Southern Federal University in Rostov-on-Don (Russian Federation), the Wallachia University of Târgovişte (Romania), Université Sorbonne, Paris (France), the University of Bucharest, the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iaşi, the Jagiellonian University, Kraków (Poland), the West University of Timişoara, the Tbilisi State University (Georgia), the Don State Technical University, Rostov-on-Don (Russian Federation), the St. Petersburg University of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia (Russian Federation), the Saint Petersburg State University (Russian Federation), and other academic institutions (Moldova, Russian Federation, Romania, Lithuania, Tajikistan: the Institute of History of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research, the Institute of Archeology of the Romanian Academy Iaşi Branch), the Olga Necrasov Center for Anthropological Research of the Romanian Academy (Iaşi Branch) (Romania), the Institute of Archeology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Russian Federation), the N.N. Miklouho-Maclay Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow), the Lithuanian Institute of History, Vilnius (Lithuania), the Faculty of Philosophy of the Oryol State University (Russian Federation), the A. Donish Institute of History, Archeology and Ethnography of the National Academy of Sciences of Tajikistan, the Center for Written Heritage of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tajikistan, the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia), the Institute of World History of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Moscow, Russia). The full program of the conference can be found here.

We express our gratitude to all the participants of this conference.