510 - Meissen Two Vases with Scattered Flowers and Gold Rim, First Choice, Crossed Swords Mark

Meissen Two Vases with Scattered Flowers and Gold Rim, First Choice, Crossed Swords Mark Porcelain, polychrome painted, gilt, glazed. Two vases by the Meissen State Porcelain Manufactory in the Streublümchen pattern. The larger vase of baluster form with a tall, curved neck, flaring mouth and stepped foot ring; the smaller vase with a squat, globular body and short trumpet neck. Both walls with small sprays of flowers distributed singly across the surface in yellow, purple, red and blue, among them rose, aster and cornflower; the rim and foot ring with gold lines. The undersides with the underglaze blue crossed swords mark without pommel, together with the red painter's number. Good condition. H. 24 cm and H. 13 cm Scattered flowers are among the oldest and most enduring Meissen patterns. Unlike the floral bouquet, no principal group is set; instead a sequence of small, individually placed blossoms is distributed across the whole surface, allowing the white body to come into its own. The pattern arose in the 18th century from the observation that fine painting on a white ground shows the quality of the porcelain better than a covering decoration; it was reissued again and again for vases, tableware and ornamental pieces in the 19th and 20th centuries.