Ballet dancers 1755 - 1768

These porcelain ballet dancers were produced in the late 18th century by the Ludwigsburg Porcelain Manufactory in Germany. Porcelain is made by firing a mixture of fine clay and other materials at high temperatures; the result is strong, smooth, and can take fine detail. Here, the crisp folds of the dancer's costumes, and the expressions on their faces, show what this material can do. The figures would have begun as sculpted models, from which molds were made. Liquid porcelain clay was then poured into the molds, allowed to harden, and carefully removed. It was then fired, and painted. Consider the intense labor needed to make this object. From mining the raw materials, to the complex sequence of hand-crafting, this was not a quick or easy process. While the ballet dancers might seem like a frivolous subject, they remind us that all luxury goods are underpinned by extensive production processes, and a whole social world of labor.