Sophie von der Goltz
Head of Sale
Lot 91
A Meissen bowl and cover from the Japanese Palace, circa 1730
1 December 2025, 13:00 GMT
London, New Bond Street£1,000 - £1,500
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Sebastian Kuhn
Department Director
Nette Megens
Head of Department, Director
Raphael Machiels
Associate Specialist
A Meissen bowl and cover from the Japanese Palace, circa 1730
Painted in Kakiemon style with bamboo in front of flowering branches and sprays of foliage and flowers, the cover applied with a rabbit finial in shades of brown, 10cm high, 13cm diam, crossed swords mark in blue enamel, incised Japanese Palace inventory mark N=87-/ W (2)
Footnotes
Provenance
Part of the order of Meissen porcelain for the Paris merchant, Rodolphe Lemaire, and subsequently (in 1731) incorporated into the Royal collections of Saxony in the Japanese Palace in Dresden
James Fairfax AC Collection, Retford Park, Bowral, sold at Leonard Joel, Sydney, 31 August 2017, lot 69
Literature
White, Mary, Eating at the Whites' House, Vol.3, 2022, p.545
An undated delivery list of porcelain for Lemaire includes two soup bowls with covers 'a lapins'; and the list of porcelain ordered for Lemaire that was subsequently confiscated from Count Hoym's palace and delivered to the Japanese Palace in April 1731 includes '10 kleine glatte Suppen Schalen mit Haaßen auf den Deckeln' [10 small smooth plain soup bowls with rabbits on the covers] (quoted by C. Boltz, 'Hoym, Lemaire und Meissen', Keramos, 88, 1980, p.44. The 1770 inventory of the Japanese Palace in Dresden lists: 'Sieben Stück detto [runde Butter Dosen, oder Bouillon-Näpfe], differente Mahlerey, 4. Zoll hoch, 5 1/2 Zoll in Diam: 1. St. defect, No.87' [Seven ditto (round butter boxes or bouillon ecuelles), different painting, ...] (quoted by Claus Boltz, 'Japanisches Palais-Inventar 1770 und Turmzimmer-Inventar 1769', Keramos, 153, 1996, p.74).
The form is based on a Japanese example from the Japanese Palace that was sent to the Meissen manufactory in 1729 to be copied. The shape is variously referred to in 18th-century records as a small tureen, a soup bowl, a sugar bowl and even a butter box (J. Weber, Meißener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern, Vol.II, 2013, p.341).
Important Notice to Buyers
Condition is not specified in the lot cataloguing. Please request a condition report.