522 - Meissen Presentation Dish with Floral Bouquet, Cobalt Blue and Gilding, First Choice

Meissen Presentation Dish with Floral Bouquet, Cobalt Blue and Gilding, First Choice Porcelain, polychrome painted, cobalt blue ground, gilt, glazed. Square presentation dish by the Meissen State Porcelain Manufactory with a shaped, scalloped rim drawn in at the corners and two pierced openings at the sides serving as handles. In the well a many-flowered bouquet in fine hand painting, composed of a pink and white striped tulip, a yellow and a purple blossom, orange marigolds, forget-me-nots and blue-green foliage, together with scattered blossoms in two lateral cartouches. The border with a deep blue cobalt ground bearing gold-heightened rocaille cartouches with relief decoration left in white, the rim with a gold line. The underside with the underglaze blue crossed swords mark, together with incised model numbers and an iron-red painter's number. A damage to the rim on the underside, otherwise good condition. 4x41x41 cm (HxWxD) Since the middle of the 18th century the floral bouquet has belonged to the core repertoire of Meissen painting: out of the initially botanically faithful Deutsche Blume, taken from pattern books, developed the more freely composed, shaded bouquet that is still painted at the manufactory today. Its combination with a solid cobalt ground and applied gilding characterises the presentation ware intended for the tables of the prosperous middle class, which went well beyond the effort spent on ordinary services. Meissen has used the crossed swords as its manufactory mark since 1722, making it one of the oldest continuously used marks in Europe. The incised numbers on the underside denote the form and the thrower, the painted numeral the painter who carried out the work.