Footnotes

Provenance:
Ordered by Augustus the Strong, probably in late 1732;
Given by Augustus III of Poland and Saxony to Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden in May 1734;
Transferred to the Royal Wardrobe after Queen Ulrika Eleonora's death in 1741;
Anon. sale, Auktionverket Stockholm, 1 December 1992, lots 5247 and 5248

Literature:
U. Pietsch/K. Jakobsen, Frühes Meissener Porzellan (1997), no. 19;
L. Ljungström, Sweden, Hesse-Cassel, and Meissen, in M. Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), Fragile Diplomacy (2007), p. 265 and n. 24

Exhibited:
Düsseldorf, Hetjens-Museum, 'Frühes Meissener Porzellan Kostbarkeiten aus deutschen Privatsammlungen', 19 January-6 April 1997;
Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellansammlung im Zwinger, Albertinum, 'Frühes Meissener Porzellan Kostbarkeiten aus deutschen Privatsammlungen', 7 May-13 July 1997

Part of a lavish gift of Meissen porcelain presented to Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden in late May, 1734, by a Swedish colonel in the Saxon Swiss Guards, Count Axel Cronhielm, on behalf of Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. The gift, which consisted of several services and sets of decorative objects, is mostly still preserved in Swedish collections (see Ljungström, pp.257-273). Queen Ulrika Eleonora (1688-1741), the daughter of Charles XI, reigned in her own right for only a short time, from the death of her brother in November 1718 until February 1720, when she abdicated in favour of her husband, Friedrich, Landgrave of Hessen-Kassel (Frederik I of Sweden). The political and diplomatic purpose of Augustus III's gifts to Queen Ulrika Eleonora and her husband, lay in his plans to succeed his father as King of Poland, although in a letter to the queen he himself claimed that the initiative for the gift was originally his father's (see Ljungström for a comprehensive discussion).

The Meissen manufactory archives include a list dated 1st February 1733 of finished and unfinished porcelain for the gift to Sweden ('Was vor Ihro Königl. Majestät in Schweden an Porcellain Geschirren bereits verferttiget und noch zu verferttigen ist..'), which indicates that the present tea and chocolate service for the Queen had already been finished: '2 Thee- und Chocolade-Servise, als: 1 fein emaillirtes mit Seefahrten, Landschaften und Wappen (ist verferttiget und geliefert)..' (2 tea and chocolate services, as: 1 finely enamelled with sea journeys, landscapes and arms (is completed and delivered). An earlier report of August 1732 indicates that one tea service (as well as a small table service and two chimney garnitures) had already been completed (quoted by G. Reinheckel, Prachtvolle Service aus Meissner Porzellan (1989), p. 196, no. 66).

An undated document quoted by Rainer Rückert suggests that the gift to Sweden was ordered by Augustus the Strong personally during a visit to Meissen before mid January 1733 (R. Rückert, R. Rückert, Alchemistische Symbolzeichen..., in Keramos 151 (1996), p. 86).

The teapot, coffee pot, sugar bowl and cover, tea caddy and six teabowls and saucers, were given to Skokloster Castle in 1840 by Count Magnus Stenbock. They were probably inherited by his mother, Countess Lolotte Stenbock, from the estate of Princess Sofia Albertina of Sweden (1753-1829), whose Lady-in-Waiting she was (Ljungström 2007, loc. cit.). Two further beakers and saucers were sold in these rooms from the Hoffmeister Collection, 25 Nov 2009, lot 80, and 24 Nov 2010, lot 65. A waste bowl from the service was also in the Hoffmeister Collection and sold in these rooms, 26 May 2010, lot 69.