Bowl with hare – this work by Hella Jongerius attracted a great deal of media attention. The Dutchwoman, known for her originality and chutzpah, slightly modified the famous animal figures and thus created a subtle quotation reaching back more than two hundred years. When the first porcelain began to be manufactured in the mid-18th century, Bavaria’s Elector Max III Joseph supported the fledgling enterprise. But it was only after a move and expansion that the hoped-for success could be won. Soon the ingenious sculptor Franz Anton Bustelli was turning out his famous figurines, which, usually used as table decoration, still have a share today in shaping Nymphenburg’s worldwide reputation. Under the direction of Albert Bäuml the company enjoyed a new artistic flowering around 1900. The brief heyday of Jugendstil marked – as with so many other porcelain makers – Nymphenburg’s entry into the modernist era, which would however be interrupted from time to time by retrograde currents such as the neobaroque wave. Young artists joined the firm in these times of change. Among them were landscape painter Hermann Gradl, who at only 18 won a Grand Prix at the 1900 Paris World Exposition. The influence of the reform movement could not be dodged, however, not least due to the proximity of the Münchner Werkstätten. Reform efforts at Nymphenburg were personified by figures like Adalbert Niemeyer, who in 1906 – one year before he became a co-founder of the Werkbund – designed the sleek service dubbed No. 820. Its most conspicuous, and difficult-to-craft, feature is a cubic border. The era of classical Modernism at Nymphenburg was shaped to a great extent by Wolfgang von Wersin, whose forms exude noble restraint and are never trivial. In his Lotos service, von Wersin demonstrated his adeptness at designing in three dimensions along with his commitment to timeless modernity at a high level. The whisper-thin, gently curving shapes are the quintessence of perfection. The painted décor underscores the flow of line, lending the service an elegant and distinguished air. Of equal standing to Trude Petri, for example, or Hermann Gretsch, the rationalist left his mark on the Nymphenburg line until well into the 1960s. Thereafter a Rococo revival temporarily put an end to the era of creativity. In recent days well-known artists and designers such as Jongerius, American Ted Mühling and Munichbased Konstantin Grcic have been exploring what artistic potential still lurks undiscovered in the realm of white china.