Sebastian Kuhn
Department Director
Lot 92
A Meissen small teapot and cover and a quatrefoil saucer, circa 1730
14 June 2017, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£2,000 - £3,000
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Nette Megens
Head of Department, Director
Sophie von der Goltz
Head of Sale
A Meissen small teapot and cover and a quatrefoil saucer, circa 1730
Each painted in Kakiemon style with scattered flowers, the bullet-shaped teapot with a curved, faceted spout and wishbone handle, the teapot and cover: 8.5cm high; the saucer: 11.6cm across, crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue (saucer) and blue enamel (teapot), incised Japanese Palace inventory numbers N=294/ W (teapot and cover) and N=366/ W (minor damage and restoration) (3)
Footnotes
Provenance:
The Saxon Royal Collections, Japanese Palace, Dresden, from 1731
Part of the large order of porcelain that the Paris merchant, Rodolphe Lemaire, ordered at Meissen and which was subsequently confiscated and incorporated into the collections of Augustus the Strong in the Japanese Palace in Dresden. The decoration was based on a Japanese tureen or soup bowl decorated in Kakiemon style that was sent from the Japanese Palace to the Meissen manufactory in late November 1729. It is interesting to note that the crossed swords mark was occasionally painted in underglaze-blue on wares intended for Lemaire (see J. Weber, Meißener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern (2013), II, cat. nos. 120-123).
The 1770 inventory of the Japanese Palace lists: "Drey Stück detto [runde Theé pots], mit kleinen Blümgen, 3 1/2. Zoll hoch, 3 1/4. Zoll in Diam: No. 294" [three similar (round tea pots), with small flowers...]; and "Ein und Zwanzig Stück detto [gemuschelte] Schälgen, differenter Mahlerey, 1. Zoll tief, 4 1/4. Zoll breit, No. 366" [twenty-one similar (lobed) saucers, various painting...]; quoted by C. Boltz, Japanisches Palais-Inventar 1770 und Turmzimmer-Inventar 1769, in Keramos 153 (1996), pp. 54 and 58.
