A pair of Meissen turquoise-ground sake bottles, circa 1733-34

Footnotes

Provenance:
The Royal Collections of Saxony, Japanese Palace, Dresden, delivered in 1734;
Baroness Renée de Becker, New York and Rome (by 1949), sold at Christie's Geneva, 11 May 1987, lot 155;
Property from a Swiss Private Collection (acquired by the present owner in the above sale)

Exhibited:
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Masterpieces of European Porcelain, cat. no. 330

The plans for the decoration of the Japanese Palace were changed in 1730 so that the piano nobile was reserved exclusively for Meissen porcelain, a floor above the Elector's enormous collection of Chinese and Japanese porcelain, which was to be displayed on the ground floor. The plan called for each room to be decorated with porcelain of a different ground colour, the celadon-green ground porcelain intended for the south-west corner cabinet. Production only began some years later, however, as the manufactory had to devote its resources to the large animals and vases also intended for the palace.

A large order of porcelain was made by Augustus III on 26 November 1733, which included celadon-ground porcelain for the corner cabinet: almost 1300 vases and assorted other tablewares, including 144 circular, quadrangular, octagonal and twelve-sided "bottles". Ninety-six 'Aufsatz-Bouteillen, Celadon-Couleur, mit weißen Feldern, darein kleine Blümgen und Zierrathen gemahlet, auch vergoldten Rändgen' [display bottles, celadon colour, with white panels in which are painted small flowers und decorations, also gilt rims] were delivered to the Japanese Palace by the end of 1734, where they were entered into the inventory under no. 291. The fact that numerous bottles with this inventory number are unmarked or have enamel clue-crossed swords marks (as on the present lot), suggests that some of the bottles were already made, and possibly also decorated, around 1730. There is, however, only very little evidence that celadon-ground wares were made for the French dealer, Rodolphe Lemaire. The incised Dreher's mark on the present bottles is for Gottfried Seydel, who was taken on by the manufactory in June 1732, makes it much more likely that these bottles were part of the order made in November 1733 by the new Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, Augustus III (see R. Rückert, Alchemistische Symbolzeichen als Meissener Masse-, Former-, Bossirer- und Drehermarken im vierten Jahrzehnt des 18. Jahrhunderts, in Keramos 151 (1996), p. 79).

Further deliveries of celadon-ground vases and tablewares to the Japanese Palace between 1735-38 - including quadrangular and octagonal sake bottles - are recorded in the palace inventory under different numbers. In all, almost 600 pieces with celadon ground were delivered between 1734-38 before the plan for the Japanese Palace was abandoned, not even half of what had been ordered in 1733.

Some of the porcelain delivered to the Japanese Palace was subsequently used to decorate the buffet in the Dresden Residence, known as the Turmzimmer. The 1769 inventory of the Turmzimmer records 'No. 291 Acht und dreyßig Stück Aufsatz Bouteillen, Celadon Couleur, mit weißen Feldern worein kleine Blümgen nach altindianischer Art, goldne Rändgen und Zierathen gemahlt, differenter Facon, 9 1/2 Zoll hoch' [thirty-eight display bottles, celadon colour, with white panels painted with small flowers in old Indian style, gold borders and decorations, various shapes, 9 1/2 Zoll high]. The 1770 inventory of the Japanese Palace records: 'Neun und Funfzig Stück diverse Aufsatz-Bouteillen, Celdaon-Couleur, mit weißen Feldern, darein kleine Blümgen und Zierrathen gemalt, auch vergoldten Rändgen, No. 291' [fifty-nine various display bottles, celadon colour, with white panels painted with small flowers and decorations, also gilt rims, No. 291].

A similar pair of bottles decorated with alternating panels of figures and indianische Blumen and the same inventory number was sold from a Swiss private collection at Christie's London, 11 December 2007, lot 53 (previously sold at Sotheby's London, 4 December 1973, lot 178 (The Property of the Marquise de Amodio, née de la Rochefoucauld), and at Galerie Koller, Zürich, in October-November 1980). A pair of bottles decorated with flower panels only but with the same inventory number was sold in these Rooms, The Hoffmeister Collection of Meissen Porcelain, Part 1, 25 November 2009, lot 22.