Agenda

A thousand years after China, the first porcelain object was made in Meissen (Germany) at the beginning of the eighteenth century. Chinese porcelain immediately became a prestige object for the rulers and the aristocracy. The German prince of Saxony and King of Poland August the Strong (1670-1733), the alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682-1719), the decorator Johann Gregorius Höroldt (1696-1775) and the model builder Johann Joachim Kändler (1706-1775) were the protagonists in the immediate success of the Meissen factory. The eight Swiss private and museum collections in the exhibition show the history and development of Meissner porcelain from the very beginning.

The museum’s permanent exhibition presents the rich history of the watchmaking industry in Val-de-Travers, a Jura valley in the canton of Neuchâtel. The many exhibits bear witness to rural life before 1730. From 1730 onwards, the inhabitants gradually abandoned their agricultural activities to focus on the watch industry. This industrial vocation would last for three centuries. The export, journeys and businesses of watchmakers to and in America, France, England and China as well as the mechanisation of the watch industry in the valley are also discussed in detail.

Felix Maria Diogg (1762-1834) was the most important portraitist of the classicist period in Switzerland. The artist portrayed the bourgeois elite of a country undergoing radical change. The exhibition examines the artist’s biography and highlights his work based on portraits from the collection of the City Museum and several loans.