442 - Biedermeier topographical cup and saucer, castle ruin in a wide landscape, Fuerstenberg, c. 1830/40

Biedermeier topographical cup and saucer, castle ruin in a wide landscape, Fuerstenberg, c. 1830/40 Porcelain, polychrome painted and gilt, glazed. Topographical cup and saucer, the cup of conical form with high wide ear-shaped handle, handle and rim gilt inside and out. Encircling landscape in brown, blue and ochre tones: a castle ruin with towering masonry on a wooded rock, before it a slope with groups of trees, beyond a stretch of water and wide ranges of hills under a bright cloudy sky. The saucer with broad gold rim and a painted gold rosette in the well. On the base of the saucer the underglaze blue mark F without crown and the number 30 in blue; the cup unmarked. Age-related condition, the gilding rubbed, small fire crack in the bottom of the saucer. Cup H. 7.5 cm. 360-degree photo on our website. Topographical porcelain is characteristic of the Biedermeier period: cups with painted vedute were bought as gifts and travel souvenirs and made by many German manufactories. The pictorial field is termed a veduta or reserve. The Fuerstenberg porcelain manufactory in the Weser uplands was founded in 1747 by Duke Karl I of Brunswick-Wolfenbuettel; since 1753 its wares carry the blue F under the glaze, whose form allows an approximate dating. The crown above the F only appeared in 1906 on ornamental wares and generally from 1918; the crownless F thus places the cup before that time.