At the end of last year, the Verein der Freunde und Förderer des Museums Viadrina e.V. was able to acquire a valuable piece of Frankfurt's city history. It is a so-called Kratervase from 1846, which was produced at the time by the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin (KPM).
The vase was offered by a Warsaw auction house in 2023. It had drawn the museum's attention to the rare object in the run-up to the auction. The Association of Friends and Supporters of the Viadrina Museum under its chairman Horst Möhring recognized the historical value of the object and financed the purchase from the association's funds.
However, the transport from Warsaw to Frankfurt (Oder) resulted in transport damage, meaning that the object still had to be worked on by a specialist porcelain restorer in Berlin.
The vase was once a gift from the Frankfurt magistrate and the city councillors to the Iserlohn merchant Caspar Brune.
The gilded krater vase bears the inscription on the back "Frankfurth a/O am 9ten November 1846 Herrn Caspar Brune aus Iserlohn zu seinem funfzigjährigen Jubiläum as Messgast von dem Magistrat und den Stadtverordneten." In the center of the picture is a red rooster, the Frankfurt heraldic animal. The back of the crater vase bears a detailed porcelain painting. The Frankfurt town hall and the market square can be seen.
The krater vase can now be viewed on the second floor of the Junkerhaus of the Viadrina Municipal Museum.
With the support of the Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Viadrina Museum e.V., further important acquisitions could be realized in 2024. With each new exhibit, a piece of Frankfurt's city history returns to the Oder and helps to compensate for the collection losses suffered in the spring of 1945, object by object.