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An extremely rare Meissen octagonal plate with the arms of Fitzgerald and Lennox circa 1750
Sold for £10,200 inc. premium
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Find your local specialistAn extremely rare Meissen octagonal plate with the arms of Fitzgerald and Lennox
The coat-of-arms at the top of the rim, the crest at the bottom, flanked by elaborate floral and vine festoons hung from shells alternating with a bearded mask, the well of the plate moulded with a floral wreath enclosing a painted spray of deutsche Blumen, 22.7cm diam., crossed swords in underglaze blue, impressed 22
Footnotes
Provenance:
Anon. sale, Sotheby's London 21 October 1975, lot 88;
Acquired in Zürich at Koller in 1976;
Literature:
Hoffmeister 1999, II, no. 366;
Ferguson / Manners 2009, p. 17-18
Exhibited:
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1999-2009
No other example of this type is recorded and the plate may have been a sample for a service that was never completed. The arms are those of James FitzGerald (1722-1773), who succeeded as 20th Earl of Kildare in 1744, and Viscount Leinster of Taplow in 1747, and Lady Emilia Lennox (1731-1814), second daughter of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond and Lennox (1701-50), of Goodwood, Chichester, West Sussex, whom he married on 7 February 1747. Patricia Ferguson and Errol Manners (Literature) suggest that the commission may have been facilitated by the countess's brother-in-law, Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland (1705-1774). Fox had ordered Meissen porcelain in 1748 through his friend, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams (1708-1759), who was himself the recipient of a lavish Meissen service from Augustus III (see lot 97) that Fox stored at Holland House in London. The authors note that designs for the Private Dining Room (of around 1745) of Kildare House (later Leinster House) in Dublin, share similar swag and shell motifs to those found on this plate, and that these plans were submitted to Henry Fox for his approval, suggesting the possibility that he may have been involved in the design of this unusual plate.
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