A Meissen porcelain dinner plate from the dinner service with the green mosaic border

A Meissen porcelain dinner plate from the dinner service with the green mosaic border

“Prussian musical design” décor. The well decorated with naturalistic flowers surrounded by six gilt-rimmed cartouches with trophies and musical instruments alternating with flowers in relief. Green scale pattern borders. Blue crossed swords mark, illegible impressed mark. With a rim chip and minor wear to the gilding. D 26 cm.
1761.

In 1760, King Friedrich II ordered a service with “mathematical instruments” from Meissen for Jean-Baptiste Boyer Marquis d´Argens (1703 – 1771). The service was decorated after his own designs. The same relief motifs were used for the two services with green and red scale-pattern borders ordered in the two subsequent years. The elaborate reliefs became known as “Prussian musical design”. We do not know today how extensive the green bordered service was originally. It is known to have passed into an English private collection in around 1840, and in 2006, 155 items from it were purchased at auction in England by the Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg. Individual pieces from this service still appear occasionally on the market.

Provenance

Christie´s London on 20th June 1996, lot 258. Collection of Renate and Tono Dreßen.

Literature

Cf. Wittwer, "hat der König von Preußen die schleunige Verferttigung verschiedener Bestellungen ernstlich begehret" Friedrich der Große und das Meißener Porzellan, in: Keramos 208/2010, p. 52 ff. Cf. cat. Triumph der Blauen Schwerter. Meissener Porzellan für Adel und Bürgertum 1710 - 1815, Dresden 2010, no. 293.