829 - Wohl Meissen Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur

Wohl Meissen Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur A porcelain coffee pot painted with a Hussar and a Saxon dragoon officer Model with S-shaped handle and pointed spout, lacking the cover. Model with three armorial reliefs beneath a crown, bearing the interlaced monogram AR highlighted in gold, with finely painted cavalry soldiers in between. Unmarked. The foot reattached (with loss); large chip to the spout. Height 17.6 cm. The porcelain attributed to Meissen, c. 1730; decor attributed to Franz Ferdinand Mayer in Pressnitz/ Prísecnice, 1730 - 40. One of the best-known painters working on white Meissen porcelain was Franz Ferdinand Meyer or Mayer, from Pressnitz in Bohemia, now Přísečnice in the Czech Republic. He is documented by a square porcelain plaque from Meissen, painted and signed by him and dated "15 Juny 1752". It depicts the married couple von Kayser and their five children, together with an empty field for their expected sixth child, "in spe", as portraits arranged on a family tree. The plaque is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (inv. no. C.117-1937). It provides evidence of the quality of his skills as a miniature and enamel painter on porcelain and forms the basis for all subsequent attributions. The depiction of the Saxon dragoon on the coffee pot shown here dates from before the military reorganisation of 1732. Provenance Collection of Josef Ullmann (1870 - 1922). Private ownership, Czech Republic. Literature On Franz Ferdinand Meyer or Mayer, see Pazaurek, Deutsche Fayence- und Porzellan-Hausmaler, vol. 2, Leipzig 1925/reprint Stuttgart 1971, pp. 318 ff.