A Meissen circular dish from the 'Gelber Löwe' service, circa 1729-31

Footnotes

For a comprehensive discussion of the history of the 'Gelber Löwe' service in the 18th century, see Julia Weber, Meißener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern, vol. II (2013), pp. 265-274. The 'Gelber Löwe' pattern was first produced at Meissen after a Japanese porcelain original as part of the large order placed by the Paris merchant, Rodolphe Lemaire, for copies of Asian porcelain. A large quantity of plates and dishes painted in this style were among the porcelain confiscated in April 1731 in the house of Lemaire's accomplice at the Dresden court, Count von Hoym, and subsequently sent to the Japanese Palace and entered in the inventory under no. 8. A similar dish with blue enamel crossed swords mark and incised inventory number N=8/ W (erased on the present lot) was sold in these Rooms, 18 June 2014, lot 59.

The 1770 inventory of the Japanese Palace records: '..Nur 60. Stück..runde tiefe Schaalen, von differenter Größe, mit braunen Rändern, Löwen, blauen Rohr und andren Blumen nach alt Indianischer Art gemahlet, No. 8' [..only 60..round deep dishes, of different sizes, with brown rims, lions, blue tubes and other flowers painted in old Indian style] (quoted by C. Boltz, Japanisches Palais-Inventar 1770 und Turmzimmer-Inventar 1769, in Keramos 153 (July 1996), p. 72).

Although the porcelain confiscated from Lemaire arrived at the Japanese Palace in 1731, it was only in November 1733 that Augustus III ordered that Meissen copies of Asian porcelain would henceforth be reserved exclusively for the Court. By January 1734, the Meissen manufactory began working on a table service of this pattern for the Japanese Palace, though it is not certain whether it was intended for use or to decorate the walls. In the following years, gifts of porcelain drawn from the service were also made to the Cracow Bishop, Jan Alexander Lipski, and the English envoy in Vienna, Lord Robinson. In 1739, a substantial group of 'Gelber Löwe' porcelain was removed from the Japanese Palace to the Hofconditorei, probably for use in Warsaw on the dessert table. A table service was ordered around 1739, and further deliveries continued in the 1740s. An inventory made at the end of 1764, after the loss of the Polish throne and the return of the service to Dresden, lists more than 2500 pieces with the 'Gelber Löwe' pattern.