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Red fire-breather

In 1728 the first diner service for the Saxon court was decorated with yellow lions. This lion, or rather a yellow tiger with black stripes, sneaks around a blue broken bamboo stem. Two beasts with scales also decorate Meissen porcelain – the Ming dragon and the courtly dragon. The preferred colour for the Ming dragon is red – in China the most auspicious of all colours. The dragon itself is a symbol of good fortune, too.
The core collection of the Porcelain Collection housed in the Zwinger goes back to the collection of East Asian and Saxon porcelain that Augustus the Strong started around 1715. It became, within only two decades, the largest in Europe.