The Factory

Craftsmanship

Herend THE MASTERS OF PORCELAIN

Herend is a small town in Hungary which has become world-famous on account of the company of the same name which, for almost two hundred years, has been producing some of the world’s most splendid and refined pieces of porcelain.

In 1826 the company’s founder, Vince Stingl, started experimenting with porcelain-making in his small potter’s workshop alongside his main activity of stoneware manufacturing.

Herend’s quality and artistic sensitivity thereafter made it known across Europe.

During the Great Exhibition of 1851, the extraordinary talent on offer led Queen Victoria to commission a dinner service to be used in Windsor Castle. It was just the beginning of a continuing success.

The Emperor Franz Joseph – also King of Hungary – took over patronage of the company, and in a short time Herend started supplying the world’s royal families and aristocracy in ever greater numbers.

Every piece of porcelain is entirely hand-painted and is the result of superb craftsmanship carried out by specialists (plaster mound makers, potters and painters) who are first trained in a proprietary school that is over 100 years old.

These techniques take literally decades to perfect and only those who have proved themselves in this regard earn the title of ‘Master’. Being able to produce true works of art, they are the only ones permit to sign the articles.

Whereas slightly less than two hundred years ago Herend was just a small shop, it now boasts almost a thousand employees, and is counted as one of the world’s biggest and prestigious companies operating in the field of craftsmanship.

Herend, November 2017