Old Höchst in Damm and Passau

Even after the closure of the old Höchst Porzellan-Manufaktur in 1796, its porcelains continued to be highly appreciated, as is evidenced by the re-utilization of its porcelain forms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The old Höchst figural groups were newly produced at the "Dammer Steingutfabrik" (Damm Earthenware Factory) from 1840 to 1888, and – as so-called "Althöchster Reproduktionen" ("Old Höchst reproductions") in Passau porcelain – at the Passauer Porzellanmanufaktur between 1906 and 1936.

At the end of a chequered fifty-year history, the Höchst Porzellan-Manufaktur founded in 1746 was already closed in 1796; two years later the old factory was auctioned off along with its entire inventory. In around 1840, Daniel Ernst Müller purchased the Höchst figural models for the earthenware manufactory in Damm near Aschaffenburg.

The old models, particularly those by Johann Peter Melchior, were used as a basis for making new working forms, which served in turn for producing these figures in earthenware. For more than forty years, the Höchst models were produced in Damm earthenware – and in isolated cases also in Damm porcelain – and painted. In 1903, the Passauer Porzellanmanufaktur purchased the old Höchst form holdings – comprising some 350 figures – and reworked them. Between 1906 and 1936, Dressel, Kister & Cie produced them in Passau in porcelain, and designated them "Althöchster Reproduktionen".
 

After World War II, all trace of the original Höchst form treasure trove was lost. The municipal administration of Höchst purchased a complete set of the Passau Althöchst line in 1927, shortly before the town's incorporation into the city of Frankfurt, in order to place the objects on display on its premises in Bolongaro Palace. To this day, they are still to be seen in the parade rooms of Bolongaro Palace. Several of the Passau forms are also on display in the Höchster Porzellan-Museum in all their technical, stylistic and artistic diversity