The Porzellansammlung (Porcelain Collection) in the Zwinger's Semperbau holds one of the most extraordinary decorative arts collections in Europe — approximately 20,000 pieces of Chinese, Japanese, and Meissen porcelain assembled by Augustus the Strong starting in the early eighteenth century. Augustus was obsessed with porcelain to a degree that influenced both his foreign policy and the development of European ceramics: he was the driving force behind Johann Friedrich Böttger's discovery of hard-paste porcelain in 1709, which led directly to the founding of the Meissen manufactory.
The collection displays Kangxi-era Chinese export porcelain alongside the Saxon court's own Meissen production, tracking the influence of East Asian design on European manufacture. The scale of the Augustus pieces — room-filling floor vases, life-size animal sculptures — reflects the extreme ambitions of its original owner. The Japanese Palace, built to house the collection but never fully completed, is the other half of the story; many of the objects migrated between the two venues across the centuries. The Zwinger galleries offer a more intimate experience of the smaller pieces.