Herend Porcelain (Herendi Porcelán)

Archival research credits Vince Stingl with founding the forerunner of the Herend Porcelain Manufactory in 1826. Stingl was born in Sopron and trained in the fine ceramics trade in Vienna. Mór Fischer took over the management in 1839 and set out to make porcelain measured against international standards. A fire caused by arson wrecked the works in March 1843, an event later painted onto a Herend plate. At the Great Exhibition in London in 1851, Queen Victoria ordered a service with a butterfly and floral pattern. Fischer named it after her, and it has been known as the Victoria pattern ever since. Emperor Francis Joseph later named the manufactory a Supplier to the Imperial and Royal Court. He also granted Fischer a Hungarian title, after which he used the name Farkasházi. Fischer handed the factory to his sons in 1874, and the state offered it to his grandson Jenő Farkasházi Fischer in 1896. The works were nationalised in 1948 and left the Fine Ceramics Works in 1981. The present company was formed in 1992, with employees holding 75 per cent of the shares. In Budapest the porcelain is sold at Palais Herend, a brand store of more than 500 square metres at József nádor tér 10-11. A second shop at Andrássy út 16 shows rose-making and painting.