Sophie von der Goltz
Head of Sale
Lot 17
A Meissen octagonal plate from the "Christie-Miller" service, circa 1740
2 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£7,000 - £9,000
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Nette Megens
Head of Department, Director
Sebastian Kuhn
Department Director
Raphael Machiels
Associate Specialist
Ghislaine Howard
Sale Coordinator
A Meissen octagonal plate from the "Christie-Miller" service, circa 1740
Painted in the centre with a landscape scene depicting elegant figures on a bridge by a tree with a palace in the distance, within a gilt trellis band reserved with four quatrelobe puce camaieu landscape scenes, the rim with a band of gilt scrollwork reserved with four polychrome landscape scenes, 22.8cm across, crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue, impressed 22 (very minor wear to bottom edge of scene)
Footnotes
Provenance:
The Late S.R. Christie-Miller, sold Sotheby's London 7th July 1970, lot 10 (part);
The Estate of the late Dr. Andreina Torre, sold Christie's Geneva, 16th November 1992, lot 151;
Dr. Roy Byrnes Collection, sold Christie's London, 12 May 2010, lot 87
Sixty-one pieces of this service (including the present lot), said to have been purchased by Samuel Christie-Miller in 1840 from a member of the Orleans family, were sold by his descendants in 1970. The scenes depicted in the centre are closely related to engravings by Melchior Küsel after Johann Wilhelm Baur, "Underschidliche Prospecten, welche er in dennen Landen Italiae und dan auf seiner Heimreis Friaul, Karnten, Steir nach d. Leben gezeichnet," published in Augsburg in 1681.
Two other octagonal plates of the service are in the Dr. Ernst Schneider Collection in the Lustheim Palace (A. Schommers and M. Grigat-Hunger, Meißener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts, 2004, nos. 103-104); another plate is in the Carabelli Collection (Ulrich Pietsch, Frühes Meißener Porzellan Sammlung Carabelli, 2000, no. 118); an octagonal bowl and an oval dish, the latter a gift of Horst Hoffmeister, are in the Museum for Decorative Arts in Hamburg (J. Lessmann, Porzellan. Glanzstücke der Sammlung des Museums für Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg, 2006, p. 38). A plate from the Hoffmeister Collection was sold in these Rooms, 24 November 2010, lot 52; others on 14 December 2016, lot 28; 22 July 2020, lot 94; and 6 July 2023, lot 61.