A large rare Meissen porcelain leaf bowl, possibly from the dinner service with the iron red mosaic borders

A large rare Meissen porcelain leaf bowl, possibly from the dinner service with the iron red mosaic borders

Naturalistically formed leaf-shaped dish, the well decorated with realistic veining in relief and iron red “indianische blumen” to the centre. Blue crossed swords mark. W 26.1, D 21.1 cm.
C. 1761/62.

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 using his own designs and produced in the following year. Meissen referred to this elaborate relief décor as “Prussian musical design”. The “dinner service with red mosaic borders and painted with red 'indianische blumen'” originally comprised 144 dinner plates, 48 soup bowls, numerous dishes and tureens as well as cutlery handles, butter dishes, salt barrels and leaf-shaped bowls (designed as vine leaves and poplar leaves), cloches, candlesticks and centrepieces. A hand drawing by the king himself exists describing the oriental flowers that were to decorate the service along with the note: “With regards to the painted décor, it should be observed that on all of the pieces no other colour is to be used but red, namely the colour preferred by his royal majesty the king of Poland, mixed with gold”. Dessert plates and additional leaf-shaped dishes were added to the service in 1763. Today, we no longer know whether the king used the service, and if so in what capacity. It is only known that he gave it as a gift to his general Wichard von Möllendorff, after whom it is now named, 20 years later in 1781. This model of leaf shaped dish, which is so large that it could almost be called a plate, is not mentioned in the literature, and thus it cannot be securely attributed to the Möllendorf service. The extensive service with iron red mosaic borders which Samuel Wittwer describes in great detail in his Keramos article from 2010, was produced according to the specifications of Friedrich II. Alongside the usual leaf-shaped dishes used in previous services, it also included new vine leaf dessert bowls based on designs by the king himself. However, these were apparently not able to assert themselves in the manufactory and at court. Two other dishes of this kind from the estate of Mario Buattas were sold by Sotheby´s New York on 23rd January 2020, as lot 241.

Provenance

Collection of the Countess of Dudley. Sotheby's New York, 31st March 1980, lot 130. 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. 54 ff. Cf. cat. Triumph der Blauen Schwerter. Meissener Porzellan für Adel und Bürgertum 1710 - 1815, Dresden 2010, no. 294.