A Meissen plate from the 'Japanisches Tafelservice' for Frederick the Great of Prussia, circa 1763

Painted in the centre with a landscape vignette depicting a tortoise, within a blue feathered border around the edge of the well, the gilt-edged, lobed and spirally-moulded rim with a yellow-ground trellis border edged with puce scrollwork, 24.4cm diam., crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue, impressed 56 (very minor wear)

Provenance:
Erich von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Collection (sold at Christies Geneva, 9 May 1988, lot 156)

In the final months of the Seven Years War before the Peace of Hubertusburg on 15th February 1763, Frederick the Great ordered the last and best-documented of his six large table services from the Meissen manufactory for the 'Chinesisches Haus' in the park of Sanssouci. For a detailed discussion of the Prussian king's Meissen porcelain orders and requisitions, see Samuel Wittwer, Friedrich der Große und das Meißener Porzellan, in Keramos 208 (2010), p. 17-81. The king gave very detailed written instructions for the design of the service to Johann Joachim Kaendler on 11th November 1762, and subsequently in person, with the aid of drawings by his own hand. Kaendler left a detailed record of the king's instructions to him, which - in addition to the title of the service - record that the shape was based upon a French silver plate, that it should appear both 'etwas antique' (somewhat antique) as well as 'muschlicht (shell-like), that it should have a yellow 'mosaique' border, and that it should be painted with 'Indianische Thiere und Vögel' ('Indian' or exotic animals and birds) [quoted by Wittwer 2010, pp. 64-65].

Samuel Wittwer has demonstrated how Frederick's unusual design was in keeping with the spirit of the Chinese House in Potsdam for which it was intended: making light of the European fashion for Chinoiserie. Of all the services that Frederick commissioned or acquired at Meissen, the 'Japanese Service' is perhaps the one that reflects the Prussian king's sophisticated taste most closely. It also serves as a reminder of the way European chinoiserie taste evolved over the course of the 18th century.

Fifteen plates from the service, including the present lot, were in the renowned collection of Erich von Goldschmidt-Rothschild. A dessert plate from the service was sold in these Rooms, 2 July 2019, lot 49.