A pair of highly important Meissen porcelain dessert plates from the hunting service for Catherine II

A pair of highly important Meissen porcelain dessert plates from the hunting service for Catherine II

"Brühl'scher Durchbruch" model. Decorated in the centre with a mounted hunter with a horn chasing a deer and two rabbit hunters in large gilt etched rocaille surrounds. Blue crossed swords mark with dot, dreher's number 10, red lacquer inventory numbers. A small hairline crack touched over in gold between 6 and 7 o'clock, wear to the gilt borders. D 26 and 26.1 cm.
1766, model attributed to Michel Victor Acier.

In 1766, Tsarina Catherine II ordered a sumptuous thousand-piece service for her hunting lodge Zarskoje Selo, which was completed in 1768. Twenty nine different painters are recorded as having worked on the service. In keeping with the Russian court's manner of dining, the service required a vast profusion of different forms of vessels and flatware, similar in scale to that of the famous Swan Service produced for Count Brühl. The many plates with hunting scenes produced between 1766 and 1768 also included dessert plates. The Tsarina was so pleased with the service that she commissioned the Imperial Russian porcelain factory to produce additions to it.

Pieces from the service are today housed in the Hermitage, in Gatchina Palace near St. Petersburg, in the Historic Museum in Moscow, in Kuskovo Palace near Moscow, and in the Hetjen's Museum in Düsseldorf (Pietsch, Munich 2004, p. 95. ff.). Dessert plates from the service are exceedingly rare.

Provenance

South German aristocratic ownership.

Literature

For the history of the Tsarina's service, see: Pietsch (ed.), Meißen für die Zaren. Porzellan als Mittel sächsisch-russischer Politik im 18. Jahrhundert, Munich 2004, p. 95 ff.