Bonhams 1793 : The 'Half-Figure Service': a highly important group of Meissen teawares, circa 1723-24

5 Dec 2012 13:30 GMT London, New Bond Street
The Marouf Collection, Part I: highly important 18th century Meissen porcelain
Back to auction 19610

The 'Half-Figure Service': a highly important group of Meissen teawares, circa 1723-24

Painted by Johann Gregorius Höroldt with chinoiserie scenes depicting half-length figures engaged in various pursuits, each within a gilt scrollwork cartouche filled with Böttger lustre and embellished with iron-red and purple scrollwork, gilt scroll- and strapwork borders to the rims, the teabowls with a circular trellis panel reserved with chrysanthemum heads in the well, the cover of the tea canister with gilt scrollwork, the sugar bowl with indianische Blumen issuing from rockwork at either end, the milk jug with similar trailing flowers below the spout and handle, comprising:
a) a double-handled beaker and saucer (crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue, incised / inside footrim of saucer)
b) a double-handled beaker and saucer (crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue, incised / inside footrim of saucer)
c) a double-handled beaker and saucer (crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue, incised / inside footrim of saucer)
d) a double-handled beaker (crossed swords mark in blue enamel)
e) a teabowl and saucer (crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue, incised / inside footrims)
f) a teabowl and saucer (crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue, incised / inside footrims)
g) an oval sugar bowl and cover (K.P.M and crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue)
h) a milk jug and cover (crossed swords mark in blue enamel)
i) a hexagonal tea canister and cover the beakers: 8cm high; the saucers: 12.6cm-12.9cm diam.; the teabowls: 4.5cm high; the sugar bowl: 12cm across; the milk jug and cover: 12.5cm high; the tea canister and cover: 10cm high (one beaker (d) restuck) (17)

Sold for £541,250 inc. premium

Footnotes

Provenance:
Frederick J. and Antoinette H. Van Slyke Collection, Baltimore, Maryland; acquired in 1957 from J.J. Klejman Gallery, New York and sold by Sotheby's New York, 26 September 1989, lot 34 [h];
The Property of a European Collector, sold Christie's London, 5 October 1981, lots 149 [i], 150 [g] [156 [e, f];
Arthur Müller Collection, Münster i. Westfalen [a, c];
Anon. sale, Christie's London, 5 December 1994, lot 172 [a, c];
The collections of Hanns and Elisabeth Weinberg and the Antique Porcelain Company of New York, sold by Sotheby's New York, 10-11 November 2006, lot 503 [i];
The Hoffmeister Collection, Hamburg [a-c (acquired in 1994), h (acquired in 1997)]

Literature:
Ulrich Pietsch, Johann Gregorius Höroldt 1696-1775, exhibition catalogue (1996), cat. nos. 61-62 [b], 63-64 [a], 65-66 [c];
Dieter Hoffmeister, Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts. Sammlung Hoffmeister (1999), nos. 29 [b], 30 [a], 31 [c], 32 [h];
Ulrich Pietsch, Preziosen einer süddeutschen Privatsammlung (2001), p. 31 [g];
Thomas Rudi (ed.), Exotische Welten (2010), no. 90a [b, c];
Ulrich Pietsch, Passion for Meissen (2010), nos. 18a [a], 18b [b], 18c [c], 18d [d], 19a [e], 19b [f], 20 [g], 21 [h]

Exhibited:
Baltimore, Maryland, The Walters Art Gallery, 1954-56 [h];
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden - Porzellansammlung im Zwinger, Johann Gregorius Höroldt 1696-1775 und die Meissener Porzellanmalerie, 4 August-20 October 1996 [a, b, c];
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Sammlung Hoffmeister, 1999-2009 [a, b, c, h];
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Japanisches Palais, Triumph der blauen Schwerter: Meissener Porzellan für Adel und Bürgertum 1710-1815, 8 May to 29 August 2010, cat. no. 52

'Half-Figure Service' decoration - generally considered to be among the finest of all Meissen chinoiserie painting and usually attributed to J.G. Höroldt himself - is characterised by the dramatic depictions of large figures in the foreground, often with the lower body cut off by the cartouche, as well as the complex and subtle scenes. The sophisticated palette, and the use of iron-red, purple and yellow in the foliate scrollwork around the cartouches, suggests a date of around 1726 (see Andreina d'Agliano, Edles Gedeck (2003), p. 30, and Claus Boltz, Eisbären und Polarfüchse ./. 6 Kästen Sächsisches Porzellan. Keramos 148 (1995), p. 23).

Two teabowls and saucers and two chocolate beakers and saucers from the same service, also acquired from J.J. Klejman in New York, are in the Wark Collection (published by Ulrich Pietsch, Early Meissen Porcelain from the Wark Collection (2011), nos. 112-115. An oval sugar box and cover is in the Ludwig Collection, Bamberg (Regina Hanemann (ed.), Goldchinesen und Indianischen Blumen (2010), no. 39. A double-handled beaker is in the Carabelli Collection, Basel (U. Pietsch, Frühes Meißner Porzellan Sammlung Carabelli (2000), no. 16), four teabowls and saucers and one teapot of Half-Figure service type were sold by Christie's Geneva, 13 May 1985, lot 181-182.