SMALL VASE Fulda, circa 1741–44.

SMALL VASE

Fulda, circa 1741–44.
Faience decorated in overglaze enamels. Oval form with East Asian floral decoration. Unmarked.
H 17 cm.
Cover missing. Base with a break.

Provenance:
- Hans Baecker Art Gallery, London, 1942.
- Schuler Auctions, Zurich, June 15, 1999.
- Peter Ducret Collection, Kilchberg.

Exhibited:
Made in FD. Spitzentechnologie aus der Fuldaer Fayencemanufaktur (1741-1760), Vonderau Museum Fulda, March 13, 2015–May 31, 2015, exhibition catalog, No. 82.

The Orientalizing decoration reflects the style of Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck, although it is not of the same quality.
Similar models are in the Vonderau Museum (Fulda exhibition 2005, inv. no. IV D12) and the MAKK Frankfurt (Pietsch 2014, no. 161). In his 2014 publication on Löwenfinck, Pietsch proposed an attribution to his brother Carl Heinrich von Löwenfinck, a less accomplished painter, both for the Frankfurt example (ibid.) and for the present vase.
Comparably decorated pieces from services, consistently attributed to Löwenfinck’s brother, are preserved in various museums (ibid., cat. nos. 162–181).

Fulda (1741-1761)

The important faience manufactory was founded by the art-loving Abbot Amand von Buseck (1737–1756, Prince-Bishop from 1752), and was the precursor of the princely porcelain manufactory founded in 1759 by Prince-Bishop Heinrich von Bibra.
With the celebrated enamel painter Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck, the faience manufactory acquired a master of his craft in the very year it was founded. He brought with him the brilliant palette of enamel colors that he had already perfected at Meissen. Löwenfinck’s brothers Christian Wilhelm and Carl Heinrich, as well as his wife Maria Seraphia Schick, also worked in Fulda.
After Löwenfinck left in 1744, painters such as Georg Friedrich Hess and his son Ignaz Hess continued the high standard of quality following their arrival in 1751. At the same time, they initiated an artistic shift away from Asian-inspired floral and figural decoration toward native plants, the so-called "German flowers", a style they had brought with them from the Höchst faience manufactory. Ignaz Hess remained until 1757. Another master was Joseph Philipp Dannhöfer, who, like Löwenfinck, had learned his craft at one of the most important early porcelain manufactories, Du Paquier in Vienna. He is documented in Fulda for brief periods between 1750 and 1753.
The heyday of the Fulda manufactory ended with the death of the Prince-Abbot and the outbreak of the Seven Years’ War. The manufactory’s economic situation deteriorated, and production ceased in 1758.