820 - Meissen Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur

Meissen Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur A Böttger stoneware Chinoiserie jug and cover Mould-formed red Böttger stoneware with a matt-polished surface. Small model of square section with a square spout on a Chinese-style joint and a finely moulded S-shaped handle. Matching stepped, moulded cover. A short firing crack on one of the lower edges. Height 12.3 cm; height with cover 14 cm. Dresden, Venusbastei, c. 1708 - 10. From the summer of 1706, by royal order, the underground chambers of Dresden’s Venus Bastion were converted into a laboratory for Johann Friedrich Böttger. Until he was able to move into these premises in October/November 1707, he was held under arrest at Königstein Fortress. When the first successful experimental firing took place in the Bastion towards the end of 1707, more than 115 soldiers were stationed there to guard him and the Arcanum (the secret of porcelain manufacture). On 24 April 1708, the time had come: The founding decree of the porcelain manufactory was signed. Johann Friedrich Böttger’s collaborators began production. From 1710 at the latest, the trained goldsmith Johann Jacob Irminger was primarily responsible for the design of forms. His duties included not only producing models in the Asian style, based on imported porcelain, but also creating “new designs”. Whether the model for this jug can be attributed to him remains speculative. Provenance Private collection, Westphalia. Literature Cf. Syz/Jefferson Miller II/Rückert, Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, vol. I, Washington 1979, cat. no. 1, an identical plain jug in the larger model (H 20 cm). Cf. cat. Meißen Frühzeit und Gegenwart. Johann Friedrich Böttger zu Ehren, Dresden 1982, fig. I/39, the small glazed model with a Prunus relief and an incised cartouche. See also Jedding, Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts in Hamburger Privatbesitz, Hamburg 1982, cat. no. 5. Cf. Boltz, “Steinzeug und Porzellan der Böttgerperiode – Die Inventare und die Ostermesse des Jahres 1719”, in: Keramos 167/168/2000, fig. 84, the model with Prunus relief and cut decoration; figs. 85 f., both examples additionally embellished with coloured lacquer decoration, the relief set with garnets. An identical example of the small jug is not included in the inventory of the Easter Fair of 1719. Cf. Santangelo, A Princely Pursuit. The Malcolm D. Gutter Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain, San Francisco 2018, cat. no. 7, with a smoothed Prunus relief, the rim of the cover and the upper edge notched all the way round. On Böttger, see Rückert, Biographische Daten der Meißener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich 1990, pp. 72 ff.