By the 19th century, Meissen had perfected the technical aspect of production, and more pieces are on the market today from this time than from the 18th century. Jody Wilkie, the international head of European ceramics and glass for Christie’s New York, suggests that the objects from the very late 18th and early 19th centuries, although not representing the finest Meissen tradition, present “a tremendous opportunity” for collectors wishing to enter the field. “You can buy a dinner plate of this period for $200,” says Wilkie. “Walk into Scully & Scully [the New York home furnishings store] and you will pay about that for a contemporary Meissen plate.” There is also value to be found in some of the period’s more elaborate sculptural works, such as a pair of 19th century Meissen cockatoos, which sold at Sotheby’s in Melbourne, Australia, in May 2008 for $A7,500 ($7,200), above its high estimate of $A5,000 ($4,775).

Of course, it is not always easy to distinguish golden-age Meissen from later examples. Molds were used for decades, and similar forms were decorated by diverse hands. “You can find two figures cast from the same mold 20 years apart, perhaps painted by different artists, or maybe one was cast during a time of war when the most seasoned craftsmen were off fighting,” says Wilkie’s colleague Melissa Bennie. In the Meissen factory, artists in the sculpting and painting departments generally worked anonymously. Pieces were unsigned, bearing on their bases only the crossed-swords Meissen mark, taken from the arms of Augustus II and first applied, in an underglaze blue enamel, in the 1720s.

As a general rule, says Bennie, the closer in time and style a piece is to the original on which it is modeled, the stronger its market. She cites a 1905 figure, designed by Julius Konrad Hentschel, of a small boy drinking from a Meissen Blue Onion tea bowl: pre–World War II examples of the figure tend to achieve more than $2,000 at auction, while those made after the war bring closer to $1,200. A top 1905 example went for $3,695 in Christie’s October 2007 sale of the Dr. W.A. Criswell collection of late 19th- and early 20th-century Meissen.

Post-golden-age contemporaneous production can’t trump golden-age originals in value: At press time, the London dealer Brian Haughton had in stock a rare circa 1745 figure of a harlequin with a birdcage modeled by Eberlein and priced in the “region of $70,000.” And Angela Gräfin von Wallwitz, a Munich dealer specializing in fine Continental pottery and porcelain from 1450–1850, had on offer another gem from Meissen’s prime, a circa 1740 figure of a drunken peasant, modeled by Kändler, and priced at €32,000 ($50,800).

In addition to the difficulty of distinguishing between Meissen ware from different eras, connoisseurs must deal with imitations. These were not always created with the intent to dupe: The recipe for hard-paste porcelain was leaked from the Meissen factory some time before 1720, first to Austria and then throughout Europe. Soon several countries had factories that were turning out work inspired by the originals. Some inventive makers even added the Meissen crossed-swords symbol to their own wares, which is why dealers, collectors and curators alike strongly recommend that buyers familiarize themselves with the evolution of the authentic mark itself, and also examine as many pieces of Meissen as possible. Eventually a new collector will learn to recognize the innovative glazes and modeling techniques that belonged, for a period, to the Meissen factory alone. (Not to say that some imitations aren’t valued collectibles in their own right.)

Hausmalerei makes the collecting field even more nuanced for Meissen aficionados. In 1723 painter Johann Gregorius Höroldt brought his brilliant enamel work to the factory, but before his arrival, blank white or solid-colored wares were sent out for painting to artisans called Hausmaler (“home painters”), who were based throughout Germany and in Delft, Holland. Even after Höroldt’s arrival, this practice continued. The pieces, or Hausmalerei, are a distinct, and highly prized, Meissen category. In a November 2006 Sotheby’s sale of a private collection, a Hausmaler coffeepot, 1725–30, painted by the workshop of Ignaz Preissler, a master of the craft, sold for $11,400 (est. $10–$15,000). And aficionados of Höroldt’s work, if they move swiftly, can purchase a pair of circa 1725 Chinoiserie plates painted by the man himself from the Munich dealer Röbbig München for €160,000 ($252,000).