An extremely rare pair of Meissen red-ground bottle vases, circa 1735

Footnotes

Provenance:
Catalina von Pannwitz Collection, 'De Hartekamp', Heemstede, The Netherlands (purchased from Alfons Heilbronner, Berlin, in 1924)

This form of bottle vase appears to have been made exclusively for the Dresden court (all are marked with the AR monogram for Augustus Rex). The form was made in several sizes (the present lot is the largest), most commonly with a sea-green or turquoise ground colour for the Japanese Palace in Dresden. Bottle vases of this large size, painted in imitation of a Chinese original in the collection of Augustus the Strong, were delivered to the Palace by July 1734, and another five of the same size with a turquoise or celadon ground colour were delivered in 1737. A similarly large bottle in the Rijksmuseum is decorated with the only known example of a marbled green ground. Walter von Pannwitz also owned two slightly smaller pairs of bottle vases with a similar decorative scheme as the present lot: the first with a seeded yellow ground reserved with indianische Blumen, and the second with a similar blue ground (sold by Galerie Helbing in Munich, 24-25 October 1905, lots 388-89 and 390-91; the first pair is now in the Rijksmuseum (A.L. den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum (2000), no. 193) and the second pair was sold by Christie's Geneva, 9 November 1987, lots 148-9).

Numerous ground colours were developed by J.G. Höroldt for the Meissen manufactory in the late 1720s: a 1731 list of porcelain painted by Höroldt as samples or models for his painters includes examples of twelve different ground colours including red (C. Boltz, Höroldts Malereimodelle von 1731, in Keramos 158 (1997), pp. 3-24). Red is one of the rarer ground colours on Meissen porcelain and known mostly in combination with European landscape scenes dating to the early 1740s. These vases belong to the earliest examples: the only other recorded example with similar chinoiserie decoration is the ovoid Augustus Rex vase and cover that was sold by Paul Graupe, Berlin, 27-29 May 1935, lot 466 (see illustration). Five vases from a garniture painted with flowers, animals and insects reserved on a red ground are published by U. Pietsch, Phantastische Welten (2014), nos. 31-35 (of which two are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York).

This style of chinoiserie decoration has been described as 'contour' chinoiseries (to distinguish it from the more common style of chinoiserie decoration associated with J.G. Höroldt, see A.L. den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum (2000), p. 259) and has been associated with the painter A.F. von Löwenfinck, who was active at Meissen until 1736. The style is based on prints by Augsburg publishers, such a Johann Christoph Weigel, but has been most closely associated with the series 'Nieuwe geinventeerde Sineesen published in Amsterdam and Leipzig by Petrus Schenk and his son (A.L. den Blaauwen, Keramik mit Chinoiserien nach Stichen von Petrus Schenk Jun., in Keramos 31 (1966), pp. 3-18). In the case of these vases, only the figure of the monkey appears to be derived from the title page of the Schenk series. Two figures playing blind man's buff and the standing figure with the monkey appear together on a plate in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (Inv. BK-17367). See also J. Weber, Porzellanmalerei nach Pieter Schenk und Johann Christoph Weigel, in C. Bischoff/P. Kuhlmann-Hodick, La Chine Die China-Sammlung des 18. Jahrhunderts im Dresdner Kupferstick-Kabinett (2021), pp. 202f, and five vases from a yellow-ground garniture decorated in similar style in the Porzellansammlung, Dresden (inv. no. PE 1343-1347).