Dirk Hikken Baumfalk married Folka Freese in Norden, Germany, on April 26, 1862. He was twenty-eight, she was twenty-six. I have a porcelain teacup with a painted inscription that looks like “Fuleke Baumfalk geb, Freese.” When we inherited this item through my husband’s family, I assumed it was used at this wedding. Since then, I have been unable to trace any mention of a personalized teacup being used such as this at a wedding.
Today for the first time, I looked at the bottom of the teacup. There is an off-center blue stamp with the letters KPM and what looks like a blue vertical line over the letter P.
That was much easier to trace. The Royal Porcelain Factory in Berlin, Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur (abbreviated as KPM) was founded in 1763 by King Frederick II of Prussia. KPM is still making porcelain four centuries later. According to Mayfair Gallery, Blog – KPM Porcelain: Guide to Berlin’s Royal Porcelain Factory | Mayfair Gallery 6 September 2018, KPM specialized in porcelain dinner services during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, among other things.
King Frederick granted his factory the use of its now-famous emblem, his royal scepter. Although the markings on the KPM pieces have changed from time to time, after 1837 the letters KPM were added underneath the scepter mark. The KPM factory has produced a vast amount of porcelain for a wide variety of clients, including some one-off commissions.
So, it is possible that there was a group of KPM artists who did “made-to-order” pieces for special occasions, such as weddings. This could have been an expensive keepsake, which may explain why it they took special care to insure its survival despite the fact that Dirk and Folka had eleven children and relocated from Germany to southeastern Nebraska.
While searching for more information, I did chance upon a few other interesting tidbits of German wedding history. First was the legend of the wedding cup. These were made of pewter or other metal, not porcelain. The legend dates back to fifteenth-century Nuremberg. A wealthy nobleman didn’t want his daughter to marry a goldsmith, so he had the prospective groom thrown in the dungeon. Instead of the daughter abandoning her love, she became deathly ill. Her father told the goldsmith if he could fashion a chalice that two people could drink from separately without spilling a drop, the couple could wed.
Then there was the other pre-nuptial activity, Polterabend, which involved porcelain. Supposedly the wedding guests thought it would be a nice gesture to visit the home of the bride and/or groom the night before the wedding ceremony bringing breakable dishes to smash. The racket made by the breaking plates and cups was meant to ward off unwelcome spirits. Then the lucky bride and groom got to sweep up the mess symbolizing their team effort should continue into married life.
Did this tradition keep KPM in the porcelain business all these years? I wish I knew. If anyone reading this has any more insight into the personalized wedding teacups made by KPM, drop me a DM. Danke.
My grandfather is William H Baumfalk. If I’m reading this family history tree correctly, Dirk, would be my grandfathers great-grandfather. Do you have any other information on when he came overseas? Hicke wilt baumfalk would be my grandfathers dad. We’re just trying to trace family that we may still have in Germany. Any information would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Jackie,
I’m a little confused. If your grandfather is William H. Baumfalk, who is his son or daughter that connects you? Dirk was Hick’s father making him your grandfather’s grandfather, not great, if I am interpreting this correctly. Of course, names have been duplicated across generations, so that may be the confusion. I show Hikke Wilts Baumfalk as Dirk’s father, born and died in Germany. It’s on my Ancestry.com tree. this is on my husband mother’s side of the family. I got most of my Baumfalk information from the centennial book printed up in 1982. Happy to share any information we have.