734 - A plate from the Dutch Delft faience dinner service for the Order of the Black Eagle

A plate from the Dutch Delft faience dinner service for the Order of the Black Eagle Model without foot ring. The marks of three firing supports and six red lotos blossoms on the underside. Iron red mark conjoined PAK. Minor chips to the rim. Localised wear to the gilding. Diameter 22 cm. Manufactory De Grieksche A, Pieter Adriaensz Kocks, 1701 - 1703. In 1701, the year of his coronation, Frederick I, King in Prussia, commissioned the Delft-based manufactory ‘De Grieksche A’ to produce a dinner service with the insignia of the Order of the Black Eagle, which had been established to mark the occasion. In doing so, he initiated the creation of the first ceramic dinner service designed for a knightly order. The plates are decorated with a central oval cartouche depicting the Prussian eagle and the monogram F(redericus) R(ex). It is framed by the collar of the Order of the Black Eagle, composed alternately of eagles and circles bearing the FR monogram. A concentric band featuring the FR monogram and black and red eagles runs along the rim. All the pieces, including the plates, were intended for use at the order’s annual banquet. From 1703 at the latest, the gathering was held in the Knights’ Hall of the Berlin Palace. Only a few pieces from the service have survived. Lunsingh-Scheurleer mentions "alongside bowls, a series of wall appliqués and a small table fountain" (p. 47). Some of these pieces are now housed at Charlottenburg Palace. Another of these rare plates was sold by Lempertz Berlin on 21 April 2018 as lot 6. Provenance The Dessing & Dröge Collection. Literature Cf. Lunsingh-Scheurleer, Delft. Niederländische Fayence, Munich, 1984, no. 141. Cf. cat. Orden auf königlichem Porzellan, Petersberg, 2013, fig. 1.