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The decorations on these vases are seemingly Chinese – from the figures playing music in front of a large pagoda to traders with exotic wares. Yet all the compositions spring from the imagination of Johann Gregorius Höroldt, a Meissen porcelain artist who had never been to China. At that time, his chinoiserie scenes, as they are known, were much in demand across Europe. They reflect the European idea of China as the ideal of a state with exceptionally cultivated people living in a paradise of abundance and leisure.