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A very rare pair of early Meissen beakers and saucers, circa 1717 image 1
A very rare pair of early Meissen beakers and saucers, circa 1717 image 2
Lot 230

A very rare pair of early Meissen beakers and saucers, circa 1717

Amended
6 December 2018, 16:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street

Sold for £15,000 inc. premium

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A very rare pair of early Meissen beakers and saucers, circa 1717

The bases strongly-moulded with pillar flutes and with pronounced everted rims, the saucers with trembleuse centres, decorated in Dresden in the workshop of George Funcke with borders of leaf and floret motifs in Böttger lustre outlined in gold and heightened with simple scrollwork in blue, green and puce enamel, the fluted bases and inside rims picked out in bright gold, beakers: 8cm and 8.2cm high, saucers: 14.6cm and 14.7cm diam., beakers marked with four dots in purple enamel (4)

Footnotes

Provenance:
Anon. sale, Sotheby's Amsterdam, 28 March 2007, lot 725

Only one other gadrooned beaker and saucer decorated in the same manner and with four (gilt) dots to the underside of the beaker is recorded, in the Arnhold Collection, New York (M. Cassidy-Geiger, The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain 1710-50 (2008), no.67). The author notes (p. 288) that the application of small decorative elements to the inside and underside of cups could be considered a Funcke signature.

A teapot and cover, a sugar box and cover and two teabowls and saucers from a similarly decorated service are in the Hans Syz Collection, Smithsonian Institution (H. Syz et al., Catalologue of the Hans Syz Collection (1979), no. 25); another teabowl and saucer from the service was in the Hoffmeister Collection, Hamburg, sold in these Rooms, 24 November 2010, lot 3.

The inspector of the Meissen manufactory, Johann Melchior Steinbruck recorded in 1717 the introduction of purple or pink lustre decoration, developed by Johann Friedrich Böttger. Funcke's invoices for enamel colours between 1713-19 (Claus Boltz in Keramos 167/168 (2000), p. 143) record that the colours used on the present lot were all in use by 1717 (while black and red, neither of which are used on the present lot, were first used in 1718). A saucer with the same enamels also combined with Bottger lustre, although with the addition of an iron-red border, was sold in these rooms, 18 June 2014, lot 33.

Saleroom notices

Please note there is some very light spray residue to two beakers and one saucer, due to one or two minuscule filled porcelain flakes (does not affect the gilding).

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