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A Meissen coffee cup and saucer circa 1755
£4,000 - £6,000
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Find your local specialistA Meissen coffee cup and saucer
Each painted with a landscape vignette depicting peasants, and scattered flowers around the gilt-edged basketwork rim, the scroll-handle embellished in gilding, the saucer: 13.5cm diam., the cup: 6.8cm high, crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue (2)
Footnotes
Provenance:
Acquired in 1967
Literature:
Hoffmeister 1999, I, no. 205 and frontispiece
Exhibited:
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1999-2009
This was the first piece of 18th-century Meissen porcelain to be collected by the Hoffmeisters: 'the origins (of our collection) go back to 1967 when my mother and I went into town for various errands. On this occasion we also visited the art dealer Meyer, who kept a shop in Hamburg at the Hohen Bleichen. We had known him and his wife for many years (...). As it was not mother's character to keep business people talking leisurely, she soon looked around the shop for something that would please her. Her eye was caught by a cup and saucer decorated with peasant scenes. My mother was attracted by the shape and the decoration of the cup and saucer. By coincidence, it was a Meissen piece, but the factory was of no consequence to her purchase. Having arrived at home, we informed my brother of our city-tour, and showed him the cup and saucer. My brother, a successful businessman, of course asked the price. When he heard, that she had paid 750DM for the cup, he showed, though lovingly disguising his feelings, no great understanding for the purchase, and suggested imposing a spending limit. Our mother, slightly annoyed about his critical reaction, decided from that day on to enjoy her morning coffee from the cup' (Hoffmeister 1999, I, p. 7).
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