Herend Porcelain Manufactory (Hungarian, founded 1826)

The Herend Porcelain Manufactory is a ceramics factory based in the town of Herend, Hungary. It was founded in 1926, and during the 19th Century it was the foremost producer of fine porcelain in the country, thanks in no small part to its dynamic director Mor Firscher (1799-1880), who took over the factory in 1839.

Although initially specialising in ceramics, by the 1840s the factory was fully focused on producing artistic porcelain, and it would display its wares at several of the Great Exhibitions of the 19th Century. It was at the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London that the factory's wares caught the eye of the British monarch, Queen Victoria, who would go on to commission the factory to produce for her a dinner service. This pattern, known as the 'Viktoria', featured botanical studies of flowers and butterflies and to this day remains one of the factory's most popular products.

Herend also received a number of other important commissions over the course of the 19th Century, including for wealthy Hungarian families as well as established European dynasties like the Rothschilds.

In 1865 the Austro-Hungarian Emperor Franz Joseph I appointed the Herend Porcelain Manufactory the official suppliers of porcelain to the Hapsburg dynasty. In gaining such a status, the Herend Porcelain Manufactory replaced the defunct Royal Vienna Porcelain Manufactory, which had been officially closed in 1864.