Bonhams 1793 : A very rare Meissen chocolate cup and saucer from the Swan service, circa 1739-40

A Meissen chocolate cup and saucer from the Swan service circa 1739-40

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

A very rare Meissen chocolate cup and saucer from the Swan service, circa 1739-40

Modelled by J.J Kaendler and J.F. Eberlein, shell-moulded with swans swimming among bulrushes and a crane in flight overhead, the branch handle with flower terminals, the footrims shell-moulded, each painted with the arms of Brühl and Kolowrat-Krakowska and scattered indianische Blumen, gilt-edged rims, the beaker: 8.6cm high; the saucer: 14.8cm diam., crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue, impressed 6. inside footrim of saucer (2)

Sold for £55,250 inc. premium

Footnotes

Provenance:
Baron von Born Collection, Budapest

Literature:
Ulrich Pietsch, Passion for Meissen (2010), no. 67

The Swan Service was ordered in 1736 for the director of the Meissen manufactory, Heinrich Graf von Brühl (1700-1763). A manufactory report of May 1736 states that: 'Ein neues Taffel Servis vor des H. Geh. Cabinet Minister von Brühl Excellenz von ganz neuer Façon verlanget worden sei' [a new table service was ordered for His Excellency the Privy Cabinet Minister von Brühl of entirely new design]. Almost every piece is painted with the marriage arms of Brühl and his wife, Maria Anna Franziska von Kolowrat-Krakowska (1712-1762), who married in April 1734.

The service originally comprised over 2,200 pieces, of which most remained in the family's possession until the Second World War. From around 1880, pieces were lent to museums in Dresden and Berlin or passed to collectors, so that by 1900 only 1,400 pieces remained at the family's Silesian seat, Schloss Pförten. These remaining pieces were either destroyed along with the castle, or stolen, at the end of the Second World War.

The first mention of the chocolate beaker in the work records is by Eberlein in March 1739: '1 Schokoladenbecher wie eine Muschel, die Schwäne und Reiher darauf bossiert, nebst Henkel von einem Aste' [1 chocolate beaker like a shell on which the swans and stork are repaired, along with a branch handle]. In November 1740, Kaendler mentions: 'Für Ihro Hoch Reichs Gräfl. Excellenz den Herrn Geheimden Cabinets Minister de Brühl einen Coccoladen Becher zum guten Service, worauf die Schwanen, Reiher und Schilf befindlich, in Thon poußiret, sambt einem darzu gehörigen Henkel in gestalt einer Corrallen Zinke mit Blumen gefertiget' [for His [...] Excellency the Privy Cabinet Minister de Brühl, a chocolate beaker for the good service on which there are swans, a stork and reeds, repaired in clay, along with the matching handle in the form of a coral branch finished with flowers]; quoted by Ulrich Pietsch, Schwanenservice (2000), cat. no. 50. Another chocolate beaker and saucer was in the Jahn Collection, sold by Lempertz Cologne, 12 June 1989, lot 110.

See Pietsch, op. cit. for a comprehensive discussion of the service, and Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, From Barlow to Büggel, in Keramos, 119 (1988), pp. 54-68, for a discussion of the graphic sources.