Footnotes

Provenance:
Lady Charlotte Schreiber Collection, acquired in Berlin in 1878 (her journal records the purchase of "a good Medallion portrait of Augustus the Strong in Böttger Ware" on 3rd June);
Her daughter, Blanche, Countess Bessborough;
Thence by descent to Eric, 10th Earl of Bessborough, Stansted Park, Rowlands Castle, Hampshire;
Sold by Sotheby's London, 5 October 1999, lot 260

Literature:
M. Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), Fragile Diplomacy (2007), p. 7, fig. 1-15

Exhibited:
New York, The Bard Graduate Center, 'Fragile Diplomacy', 15 November 2007-10 February 2008, no. 16

Siegfried Asche (Der Dresdner Bildhauser des frühen achtzehnten Jahrhunderts als Meister des Böttgersteinzeugs und Böttgerporzellandes, in Keramos 49 (1970), pp. 79 and 81, n. 27) first suggested that this medallion was based on an original by Heinrich Paul Grosskurt (1675-1751). The source was probably a wax relief by Andreas Roht, for which see Christian Theuerhauff, Two Wax Portraits of Frederick III Elector of Brandenburg, and King Charles XII of Sweden by Andreas Roht (Anders Roth), in The Sculpture Journal III (1999), pp. 59-60. Other examples of this medallion are in the Dresden Porcelain Collection (Otto Walcha, Meißener Porzellan (1973), no. 14) and the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg (formerly Adalbert von Lanna Collection, Prague) (Theuerkauff, op. cit., fig. 12).

The Great Northern War

The precise reason for the production of portrait medallions in Böttger stoneware remains unknown. While some of the historic portraits may have been intended to commemorate illustrious members of the ruling dynasty, it is tempting to relate the portraits of Frederick IV of Denmark and Peter I of Russia and indeed Frederick I of Prussia in Böttger stoneware to the important alliance of Denmark, Saxony–Poland–Lithuania and Russia formed during The Great Northern War (1700–1721). In 1700, this triple alliance launched a threefold attack on the Swedish protectorate of Holstein-Gottorp and provinces of Livonia and Ingria in an attempt to take advantage of the inexperienced and unaligned 18-year old King of Sweden, Charles XII. The initial leaders of the anti-Swedish alliance were Peter I of Russia, Frederick IV of Denmark–Norway and Augustus II (the Strong) of Saxony-Poland-Lithuania. Frederick IV and Augustus II were defeated by Charles XII and forced out of the alliance. In 1709, Augustus the Strong, Frederick I of Prussia and Frederick IV of Denmark met in Prussia to form a new alliance, and a large so-called Allianzporträt depicting the three rulers was commissioned on that occasion. In the end, these diplomatic efforts came to nought and Augustus II and Frederick IV re-joined their original alliance in 1709 after the defeat of Sweden at the Battle of Poltava. George I of Braunschweig-Lüneburg (Hanover) and King of Great Britain joined the coalition in 1714 for Hanover and in 1717 for Britain, and Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia, the son of Frederick I of Prussia, joined it in 1715, two years after the death of his father and three years before the death of Charles XII of Sweden.

Lady Charlotte Schreiber

Lady Charlotte Schreiber, daughter of the 9th Earl of Lindsey, was born at Uffington House near Stamford, Lincolnshire, in 1812. It is through her diaries, which she kept between 1822 and 1891, that so much is known about her remarkable life and passion for collecting. Lady Charlotte first married Sir Josiah John Guest, a successful Welsh businessman and member of parliament. With him, she led a very urbane and social life with many engagements in London, which enabled her frequent visits to the British Museum to pursue a multitude of diverse interests related to study of the arts and foreign languages. Five years after the death of her first husband in 1850, Lady Charlotte married Charles Schreiber, a man many years her junior and the tutor of her children. In re-marrying, Lady Charlotte forfeited her status as trustee of her first husband's very successful ironworks. Ownership was finally transferred to her son Ivor Guest in 1864.

There were a few hints to the next stage in Lady Charlotte Schreiber's life. In 1842 she had visited Dresden, and in 1851 made a visit to the Sèvres factory. Her interest remained mainly technical, however. She was addressed as a 'collector of Old China' in a letter of 1852, and mentioned in her journal in 1856 that she intended to move some of her porcelain to her new dwelling, Exeter House in Roehampton, because 'there is nothing like china, of whatever quality, for lighting up a house.' As her children became older and her husband's short-lived political career came to an end, the couple started to travel extensively through Europe, making use of their network of contacts with aristocrats, diplomats, collectors, dealers and museum staff. In the 'Ceramic Memoranda', the smaller notebook journals Lady Charlotte kept during her travels, she recorded all noteworthy details about their purchases. Initially, the couple bought British ceramics, which were considerably cheaper on the continent than back in London. The couple travelled every year for the better part of four months and were frequent visitors to the dealers in Amsterdam, where they could also sometimes briefly store some of their purchases. Their travels took them further abroad to Spain, Portugal, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Italy, Poland and Turkey. In 1885 Charlotte Schreiber presented the South Kensington Museum (now the Victoria and Albert Museum) with, amongst others, 807 pieces of English porcelain.

For further reading on Lady Charlotte Schreiber and her collection see Charlotte Jacob-Hanson, The Unforgotten Grand Dame of the 'Chasse', Northern Ceramic Society Newsletter, June 2012, pp. 50-61.