An extremely rare early Meissen teapot and cover, circa 1715-20

Footnotes

This form was probably designed by the Dresden Court Goldsmith, Johann Jacob Irminger, and is listed in the 1711 inventory of the Meissen manufactory ('Thee Krügel mit den ganzen Adler' [teapot with the whole eagle]); see Claus Boltz, "Formen des Böttgersteinzeugs im Jahre 1711", in Mitteilungsblatt der Keramikfreunde der Schweiz, 96/1982, pp.7-40. Böttger stoneware examples are in the Ludwig Collection, Bamberg (published by L.Hennig (ed.), Glanz des Barock - Sammlung Ludwig in Bamberg, no.99), and in the Dr. Ernst Schneider Collection, Schloss Lustheim (R.Eikelmann (pub.), Meißner Porzellan des 18.Jahrhunderts in Schloß Lustheim, no.5).

The 1721 inventory of the manufactory includes 'Ein sauberer, rund gedruckter am Halße etwas vergoldeter Theé Pot mit einem Adler statt der Schnauze und einem saubern Henckel, worauf ein Engle Köpffgen, nebst einen runden, etwas vergoldeten Deckel mit einem platten Knöpffgen' [a clean, round partially gilt teapot with a pinched neck with an eagle instead of the spout and a clean handle, on which there is a small angel head, along with a round, partially gilt handle with a flat finial] (quoted in U. Pietsch/K. Jakobsen, Frühes Meissener Porzellan (1997), pp. 197f). The only other recorded example of this form in the white is in the High Museum, Atlanta, Marjorie Eichenlaub West Collection (accession no. 2018.166 a-b), formerly in a German aristocratic collection, sold at Sotheby's Munich, 8 December 1999, lot 101). Other examples with Hausmaler decoration by the Seuter workshop in Augsburg are in the Frick Museum, New York (M. Cassidy-Geiger, The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain (2008), no. 269; published in Frühes Meissener Porzellan (1997), no. 153; and in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (Lydia Liackhova, The Myth of the Orient. Eastern Subjects in early Meissen Porcelain (2007), no. 5).