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59. A Meissen celadon-ground sake bottle, circa 1735
59
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59. A Meissen celadon-ground sake bottle, circa 1735
Estimate €3,000 - €5,000
Voluntary lot
Description
59. A Meissen celadon-ground sake bottle, circa 1735
Of squared baluster shape, each side reserved with quatrelobe cartouche painted with indianische Blumen and framed with gilt scrollwork, 20.5cm high, impressed former's mark of three circles and triangle (for Gottfried Seydel), incised Japanese Palace inventory number "N=291-/W"
Provenance
The Royal Collections of Saxony, Japanese Palace, Dresden, delivered in 1734
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 blue-crossed swords marks. 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 bottle 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", 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.
A pair of bottles decorated with flower panels only but with the same inventory number was sold at Bonhams London, The Hoffmeister Collection of Meissen Porcelain, Part 1, 25 November 2009, lot 22. A similar pair of bottles decorated with alternating panels of figures and indianische Blumen and the same inventory number was sold at Bonhams London, 7 December 2022, lot 23 and also 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).
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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