FOX HUNTING SCENES ON CHINA: AN ELITE SPORT

Fox Hunting as a sport has been epitomized as a regal sport all over the world since the early 1500s. The first fox hunt in Norfolk, England was recorded 1534.

ROYAL BAYREUTH FOX HUNT SCENE

ROYAL BAYREUTH FOX HUNT SCENE

ROYAL BAYREUTH BACKSTAMP, C. 1900-10

Since then many china and porcelain factories have depicted this aristocratic sport with great esteem. In 2005 the United Kingdom banned this sport as cruelty to animals. Originally it was considered as a form of pest control by farmers which gave way to the gentry as a sport of choice rather than pest control. Fox hunting with hounds is still practiced in Australia, Canada, France, India, Northern Ireland, Italy, Russia and New Zealand. Fox Hunting is not practiced or is largely banned in Spain, Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Norway.

Germany was one of the earliest countries to bring a ban against fox hunting as a sport. In Germany, hunting with hounds was first banned on the orders of Hermann Goering July 3, 1934, one of the first laws to be introduced by the Nazis when they came to power in 1933. In 1939, the ban was extended to cover Austria after Germany's annexation of the country.

The Royal Bayreuth factory has been one of the world's leaders in the production of porcelain for over 200 years. As the oldest Bavarian china firm under private ownership, the Royal Bayreuth factory still stands like a fortress on a hill in the little village of Tettau. It is located in the Thuringian Hills, adjacent to what at one time was known as the East German border. Royal Bayreuth is recognized today, as it has been for two centuries, as Germany's finest producer of quality porcelain. Though delicate to the touch, its durability makes it last for hundreds of years.

The Royal Bayreuth porcelain Factory of Germany was one very famous factory to depict this colorful aristocratic sport as is illustrated on these two handsome plates. Click photos to enlarge.