A Meissen Armorial saucer from the Contarini service
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A rare Meissen armorial saucer from the Foscari service, circa 1740
Painted with the coat-of-arms supported by putti against a scene depicting figures in landscape on horseback, iron-red double line borders, gilt foliate scrollwork borders to the rims, 13cm diam, crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue, impressed 2 and three gold dots,
Sold for £1,875 inc. premium

Footnotes

  • The Foscari family provided the longest-serving Doge in the history of Venice, Francesco Foscari, who was Doge from 1423 until he was forced to abdicate in 1458. This service may have been supplied to a later Francesco Foscari (1704-1790), a historian, lawyer and diplomat, who was envoy to Pope Benedict XIV (also the recipient of a Meissen service), Constantinople, Vienna and St. Petersburg. Francesco Foscari was also the owner of the palace in which Crown Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony resided during his visit to Venice in late 1739. Although Foscari was not the prince's host, the size of the latter's entourage necessitated the use of his palace, and this service may have been given as a mark of gratitude (M. Cassidy-Geiger, Princes and Porcelain on the Grand Tour of Italy, in Fragile Diplomacy (2007), p. 225, n. 128).

    A cup and two saucers from this service was sold in these Rooms from the Hoffmeister Collection, 25 November 2009, lot 88.

Category: Decorative Arts / European Ceramics

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Sebastian Kuhn Bonhams
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Specialist - European Ceramics