Porzellanikon — Global Heshmat

Rosenthal K5123, Copyright: Jessica Ulrich

1 / 2

All 2 photographs

Compare two images

Choose photographs or documents to inspect together. Their order does not imply a before-and-after relationship.

Rosenthal K5123, Copyright: Jessica Ulrich

Date not documented separately.

Rosenthal K5124, Copyright: Jessica Ulrich

Date not documented separately.

The Porzellanikon is a national museum complex devoted to porcelain and ceramics. It is located in Selb and Hohenberg an der Eger, Bavaria. The museum documents the history of porcelain production, design, technology, and material culture and houses extensive collections related to European porcelain and the ceramics industry. The museum also houses the Rosenthal Company Archive. According to Hassan Heshmat’s autobiography, Rosenthal bought three designs from him. Two of these designs were found at the Porzellanikon in Selb in 2025, during Hegasy’s research. These are: “Woman with Bowl” (model number 5123) and “Standing Woman” (model number 5124, Collection RAS, Permanent Loan, Oberfrankenstiftung Bayreuth). The following year, Hegasy discovered that the Rosenthal catalog “Hundert Jahre Porzellan” (edited by Helga Hilschenz, Stuttgart, 1982) lists Heshmat as the artist and designer of three designs in 1958. In his autobiography, he refers to the porcelains as “Peasant Woman with Basket” and “Very Frail Peasant Woman.” The figures were later shown in their original form, i.e. not reworked by Rosenthal, in 1968 in Rome and Geneva. The faded black-and-white illustrations in the autobiography show that the figures had white faces. This suggests that the black skin colour was introduced in Rosenthal’s 1958 design, a color that is never found in Heshmat’s figures except when the material itself is black, such as clay. While Heshmat tried to find a visual language to represent Egyptians to Egyptians, Rosenthal intuitively emphasized the “oriental” character of Egyptian artwork.

Evidence and location

Suggest a correction or share evidence

Open fieldbook

Cite and export this entry

Leibniz-Zentrum Moderner Orient (ZMO). “Porzellanikon.” Global Heshmat, n.d. Record artwork:21. Version 82de5b4d2f9b (build d691eec046ad7a6e). https://heshmat.zmo.de/artworks/porzellanikon/. Accessed YYYY-MM-DD.

The institution is cited as the collection publisher. “n.d.” means no record update date is documented.

Use this album offline

Save the entry and reading-size images (about 0.0 MB). Videos, full-resolution images, external links and new map regions need a connection. Browser storage can be cleared; check availability before travelling. Site updates require a new download.