Sophie von der Goltz
Head of Sale
Lot 13*
A very rare Meissen circular bowl from the Swan Service, circa 1738
2 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£15,000 - £25,000
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Nette Megens
Head of Department, Director
Sebastian Kuhn
Department Director
Raphael Machiels
Associate Specialist
Ghislaine Howard
Sale Coordinator
A very rare Meissen circular bowl from the Swan Service, circa 1738
Modelled by J.J. Kaendler, moulded in relief with swans swimming among bulrushes and cranes in flight against a shell-moulded ground, painted with the arms and scattered sprigs of indianische Blumen below a gilt dash border around the edge of the rim, 24.5cm across; 6.4cm high, crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue (very minor scattered wear to gilding)
Footnotes
Provenance:
Anon. sale, Christie's London, 28 February 1994, lot 264;
Acquired in the above sale
The Swan Service was ordered in 1736 for the director of the Meissen manufactory, Heinrich Graf von Brühl (1700-1763). A manufactory report of May 1736 states that: "Ein neues Taffel Servis vor des H. Geh. Cabinet Minister von Brühl Excellenz von ganz neuer Façon verlanget worden sei" [a new table service was ordered for His Excellency the Privy Cabinet Minister von Brühl of entirely new design]. The pieces are painted with the marriage arms of Brühl and his wife, Maria Anna Franziska von Kolowrat-Krakowska (1712-1762), who married in April 1734. For the origins and development of the service, see M. Kunze-Köllensperger, Neues zum Schwanenservice: Relief - Probeteller - Wappen, in Keramos, 241/242 (2018): 53-70.
The service originally comprised over 2,200 pieces, of which many remained in the family's possession until the Second World War. From around 1880, pieces were lent to museums in Dresden and Berlin or passed to private collectors, so that by 1900 only 1,400 pieces remained at the family's Silesian seat, Schloss Pförten. These remaining pieces were either destroyed along with the castle, or looted, at the end of the Second World War.
This bowl, also referred to in the 18th century as an "Assiette", is first mentioned in Kaendler's work records in January 1738: "1. Assiette ebenfalls für den Grafen von Brühl gehörig, gefertigt, so auch in Gestalt einer Muschel ist, mit Wasser und Schilf, Reihern und Schwänen, wie vorerwähnte Tellern" [1 assiette completed also belonging to Count von Brühl, that is also in the design of a shell with water, reeds, cranes and swans, as the plates mentioned before].
Other circular bowls of the same size are in the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh (Accession no. 60.9.4); and in the Porzellansammlung Dresden (U. Pietsch, Schwanenservice, 2000, no. 34). Another, similar, was sold at Christie's London, 29 November 1973, lot 120, and again on 18 October 2002, lot 436.