Austrian ceramics is the collective term for porcelain, earthenware and art pottery made in Austria and the wider Austro-Hungarian Empire. It ranges from eighteenth-century Vienna porcelain to the Art Nouveau and Secessionist art pottery of around 1900 and the studio ceramics of the inter-war years.
The Vienna porcelain manufactory, founded in 1718, was the second hard-paste factory in Europe after Meissen, and became known for richly painted and gilded wares; its shield mark, often called the beehive mark, was widely copied on later Austrian and German porcelain. Around 1900 the region became a centre of innovation, with the Amphora works at Turn-Teplitz in Bohemia producing elaborate modelled vases and the Vienna Secession and Wiener Werkstätte promoting bold geometric designs. Michael Powolny and the Wiener Keramik workshop made striking black and white wares, and Goldscheider became famous for figures and wall masks during the Art Deco period. Collectors examine marks carefully, since the Vienna shield appears on many later pieces that are not from the original factory, and quality of modelling, painting and glaze is the surest guide to value.
