A Meissen porcelain dinner plate from the Münchhausen service

A Meissen porcelain dinner plate from the Münchhausen service

Plate with a scalloped rim decorated above with the monk's crowned coat of arms on a gilded ground with purple acanthus. The centre decorated with a fanciful Chinoiserie motif (similar to a quilin). The border with a band of purple wave motifs. Blue crossed swords mark, dreher's number 16. Slight wear to the gilding and decor. D 23.8 cm.
1745, the decor after Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck.

Gerlach Adolf Freiherr von Münchhausen (1688 - 1770) gave thanks for the "magnificent royal present" on 17th April 1745 (Hoffmeister 1999, vol. II, p. 602). Münchhausen was born in Berlin and entered the services of the Elector of Hannover in 1715. At that time, the electorate was ruled in a personal union by King George II of England. He appointed Münchhausen as privy councillor in 1727 and as „Großvogt" of the prefecture of Celle in 1732. Münchhausen began to play an increasingly important political role in the years following the death of Emperor Charles VI and was an especially trusted advisor both to George II and to his successor George III.
In the correspondence discovered by Claus Boltz in the Dresden state archives, Dieter Hoffmeister discovered that Münchhausen also played a pivotal role in the negotiations for a loan of 3.5 million reichstaler granted to Saxony by Braunschweig in 1745. The file also contained a letter exchange between Count Hennicke and Baron Münchhausen in which Hennicke requested a copy of Münchhausen's coat of arms on 4th January 1745. The service must therefore have been produced and delivered some time between January and April 1745.

Literature

Cf. several plates from this service in the Arnhold Collection (cat. London 2008, no. 204 a-c, formerly in the Paul v. Ostermann collection) and the former Hoffmeister collection (cat. Hamburg 1999, vol. II, no. 369). Twenty six of these plates were also formerly housed in the von Klemperer collection.