Sebastian Kuhn
Department Director
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Lot 192*
A rare Berlin part service, circa 1823-1832
3 December 2020, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold
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Nette Megens
Head of Department, Director
Sophie von der Goltz
Head of Sale
A rare Berlin part service, circa 1823-1832
Comprising: a coffee pot and cover, a teapot and cover, a milk jug, a sucrier and cover and two cups and saucers, all decorated with panes of micro-mosaic views of Roman archaeological sites based on the prints published in 1797 in two volumes by R. Edwards under the title "A Select Collection of Views and Ruins in Rome and Its Vicinity. Recently Executed from Drawings Made Upon the Spot in the year 1791", the views set in octagonal gilt frames alternated with neo-classical panels of abstracted lyres against a green ground in imitation of pietra dura, all enclosed by gilt bands tooled with stiff foliage and neo-classical elements, the high lobed rims of both pots and sucrier with red flower blossoms in pietra dura imitation repeated on the covers which feature an reclining sphinx as a finial, the coffee pot: 18.3cm high, sceptre mark in underglaze-blue, and red stamped mark of Imperial Eagle over initials KPM (11)
Footnotes
This service is part of a small group of micro-mosaic Berlin porcelain with views of Rome and its vicinities which all appear produced between 1823-32. At the basis of this radical new shape and decoration style lies the urge to break with rococo tradition and develop a new neoclassical iconography. Eva Wollschläger (in S. Wittwer, Raffinesse und Eleganz (2007), pp. 190-195) describes this extraordinary type of service in detail. Its shape was likely introduced in 1800 and with its reference to Egyptian revival in the gilt tooled reclining sphinxes on the covers, pre-date the famous Egyptian service made at Sèvres in 1804-06 for Napoleon Bonaparte. The eight-sided flat surfaces of these shapes are likely taken from silver models. The shape itself however may have also been referred to as 'von sogenannter gothischer Form', of so-called Gothic shape, as mentioned in the exhibition catalogue of the Akademie of 1806 (Wittwer op.cit. n. 7).
The Berlin factory found inspiration in the micro-mosaic and hardstone pietra dura furniture and interior decoration favoured by Frederick the Great, and under Frederick Wilhelm II the KPM factory from the early 19th century turned to the depiction of minerals and hardstone imitation as well as micro-mosaics on porcelain of the newest designs, a fashion that was echoed also in Vienna and Sèvres porcelain. This shape can be found with micro-mosaic panels of birds, and only occasionally with Roman landscapes. The print sources for this service published in 1797 by R. Edwards can still be found today in the archives of the Berlin factory.
Three similar cups and saucers of the same type of landscapes though not clearly identified, were previously in the Twinight Collection and are, together with their source reference, illustrated in S. Wittwer (op.cit., cat.nos. 24,25 and 26).