A Meissen armorial plate from the Ferrero Service, circa 1740

Footnotes

Provenance:
The Hoffmeister Collection, Hamburg, acquired in 1974;
Sold from the above in these Rooms, part I, Bonhams London, 25 November 2009, lot 94

Literature:
Hoffmeister, D. Meissen Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts Sammlung Hoffmeister, 1999, vol. II, no. 360

Exhibited:
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1999-2009

From a service made for the Piedmontese statesman, Carlo Francesco Vincenzo Ferrero, Marchese d'Ormea (1680-1745), who held various ministerial posts under the kings of Sardinia, including minister for foreign affairs and of the interior, as well ambassador in Dresden, culminating in his appointment in 1742 as Grand Chancellor of the kingdom. He served both Vittorio Amadeo II, to whom Augustus the Strong sent lavish gifts of Meissen porcelain in 1725 (M. Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), Fragile Diplomacy, 2007, pp. 209-212), as well as his son, Carlo Emmanuele I, in whose favour Vittorio Amadeo abdicated in 1730. The circumstances in which Ferrero acquired this service are not recorded, though it is tempting to speculate that he may have received the service as a gift from Augustus III, perhaps while ambassador in Dresden, or in connection with diplomatic dealings following the death of the Holy Roman Emperor, Charles VI, in 1740 without a male heir, which led to the War of the Austrian Succession.

There are only a few pieces of this service recorded, all of them plates and dishes. The only shaped piece, a shallow bowl from the service, was sold at Sotheby's London, 28 May 2009, lot 321 (A. d'Agliano, L. Melegati, I Fragili Lussi: Porcellane di Meissen da musei e collezioni italiane, 2001, no. 102). Other plates are in the Dr. Ernst Schneider Collection, Schloss Lustheim; in the Wark collection; three dishes (30cm and 38.5cm diam.) are in the Castello Sforzesco in Milan (d'Agliano / Melegati loc. cit.); one in the Museo Civico in Turin. Two further plates sold in these rooms, 26 November 2014, lot 244, and 8 October 2014, lot 20.