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The ‘Red Dragon’ and ‘Yellow Lion’ services were produced in Meissen. Inspired by Japanese models, they transferred these décors to European tableware. It is no coincidence the first Meissen court services in Dresden and Warsaw took the dragon and lion as their main motifs. From travellers’ accounts, the dragon was known as the insignia of the Chinese emperor and was thus a symbol of power of the first order. In contrast, the lion has been a symbol of power in Europe since antiquity. But the big cat here is evidently a tiger – a distinction apparently unknown in Saxony at that time.