Sebastian Kuhn
Department Director
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Lot 43
A very rare Meissen Böttger stoneware (Eisenporzellan) candlestick, circa 1710
3 December 2020, 14:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£20,000 - £30,000
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Nette Megens
Head of Department, Director
Sophie von der Goltz
Head of Sale
A very rare Meissen Böttger stoneware (Eisenporzellan) candlestick, circa 1710
After a silver model by J.J. Irminger, of hexagonal form with a stepped base rising to a flared shaft and knopped sconce, 14.3cm high, Japanese Palace inventory no. 206 painted in black
Footnotes
Provenance:
The Royal collections of Saxony, Japanese Palace, Dresden, delivered in 1733 from the Dresden warehouse;
Sold from the above by Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus, Dresden, 12 October 1920, lot 94
Literature:
U. Pietsch, Frühes Meissener Porzellan aus einer Privatsammlung (1993), no. 17
Exhibited:
Lübeck, Museum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte der Hansestadt Lübeck - St. Annen-Museum, 'Frühes Meissener Porzellan aus einer Privatsammlung', 14 November 1993-31 January 1994;
Aachen, Museen der Stadt Aachen - Couven Museum, 'Frühes Meissener Porzellan aus einer Privatsammlung', 26 February-20 April 1994
According to the delivery specification of 15 March 1733 of porcelain and stoneware from the Dresden and Leipzig warehouses (the so-called 'Böttgerische Credit Wesen', ie. the administration of Böttger's bankrupt estate), two "hohe Leuchter" [tall candlesticks] and six "niedrige Ditto" [small ditto] were among the "braunen unpolirten Porcelain" [brown unpolished porcelain] delivered from the Dresden warehouse, likely corresponding to nos. 205 and 206 in the 1770 Japanese Palace inventory; 206 lists 'Sechs Stück niedrige Tisch-Leuchter, 6. Zoll hoch, No. 206' [six low candlesticks, 6 zoll high...] (quoted by C. Boltz, Japanisches Palais-Inventar 1770 und Turmzimmer-Inventar 1769, in Keramos 153 (1996), p. 107, and p. 113 for the 1733 delivery specification). Of these six candlesticks, four remain in the Dresden porcelain collection (inv. nos. PE 839, 840, 1702 and 1703) and the other was also sold by Lepke's in 1920 (lot 83).
The rare iron-grey surface colour, known as 'Eisenporzellan [iron-porcelain], was achieved by over-heating the kiln and belongs to the experimental phase of stoneware production (Pietsch, p. 30). According to J.G.T. Graesse, writing in the third quarter of the 19th century, Eisenporzellan was never sold and was highly regarded by Augustus the Strong).