The Meissen factory introduced a range of new patterns c.1900; they then had to produce suitable new shapes. A competition was held among the factory employees for the ‘Preparation of designs for handles and knops for tureens and lidded vessels’, as it was felt that these were the elements in which changes in fashion were most visible. The first prize was awarded to Rudolf Hentschel and others went to the modelers Helmig, Lange and Stange and to the flower-painter Otto Voigt. This led to the joint development of a new service T-glatt, produced from 1901 for the next 2 decades. It was offered with several different decorations, the first of which was Hentschel’s abstract linear design Flügelmuster shown below, anticipating Henry van de Velde’s dynamic Peitschenhieb  by 2 years. Flügelmuster was much admired for its flat plates with barely raised rims and for the placing of the three wing motifs to form a trefoil or clover leaf in the centre. In addition to the T-glatt, 2 further services were commissioned by Meissen from outside artists: van de Velde and Riemerschmid.

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