702 - MEISSEN

MEISSEN Title: Pair of Porcelain Sake Bottles with Chinoiserie Motifs. Date: ca. 1725/1730. Material: Porcelain, decorated with colors and gold. Dimensions: Height 21.5 and 22 cm. Mark: One blue sword mark on an unglazed base, along with “MM” (embossed), and one blue sword mark on the lower rim beneath a patch of glaze. Each has an old auction label on the underside. Description: Octagonal, bulbous shape with a narrow neck, without a lid. Decorated on the front with homage scenes: on each front panel, a figure seated on a stepped throne, facing one another and each flanked by kneeling attendants. On the reverse, each panel depicts a pagoda in a garden, surrounded by lush, exquisitely painted vegetation. The neck is decorated with four reserved areas featuring trefoil-shaped motifs and pendants with flowering branches in Kakiemon colors. What is remarkable about this pair of sake bottles is the exceptionally high quality of the painting, whose style, composition, and color palette reveal a distinctive character within the Meissen decorative repertoire. The painter’s artistic skill is particularly evident in the masterfully executed, finely shaded faces of both the main figures and their companions. It is equally apparent in the lively and nuanced depiction of nature, which, despite the repetition of individual motifs, remains free from schematic stereotyping and rigidity. The high regard in which this painting was held, even by his contemporaries, is evidenced by another pair of bottles with identical decoration, though of a different shape. The pair originated from the collection of Augustus the Strong, as indicated by the Johanneum number “N = 36 = W.” It was sold at Christie’s on March 28, 1977, as Lot 37 in the “Highly Important Early Continental Porcelain” auction. With regard to possible graphic sources for the unusual motifs, Rainer Rückert refers to Arnoldus Montanus’s work *Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maetschappy in ’t Vereenigde Nederland, aen de Kaisaren van Japan* from 1669. In this context, the male figure seated on a pedestal can be interpreted in greater detail. The scepter held in his left hand is, in its design, recognizable to the European viewer as a traditional symbol of authority in Western European culture, thus allowing the figure to be identified as an emperor. The umbrella in the right hand of the figure opposite, on the other hand, can be identified as an attribute of a female figure based on numerous engravings by Arnoldus Montanus. The posture of the two main figures—leaning toward one another, a gesture further emphasized by their interrelated body language—as well as the complementary color scheme of their robes and the crown-like headdresses of both figures, suggest that an imperial couple is depicted. Against this backdrop, the documented inclusion of a pair of vases with identical decoration in the collection of Augustus the Strong also takes on special significance. The depiction of a Chinese or Japanese imperial couple could have been interpreted as a reflection and visual counterpart to Augustus the Strong’s own claim to sovereignty. However, it is not possible to determine conclusively from the sources available to date whether such an interpretation actually corresponded to the original intention of the patrons or collectors. The motif of the seated emperor appears on a number of individual objects, including a washbasin from the Klemperer Collection, a tea caddy with a brown background in the Rijksmuseum, another sake bottle from a private collection in Munich, and a cylindrical jug from the Dr. Dr. Pauls Collection. No pairs of objects on which both motifs appear together are known to exist. Another distinctive feature of the pair of bottles offered here is that, strictly speaking, the two examples do not form an originally matched pair due to their differing shapes and porcelain qualities. This is indicated by the variations in size, weight, and base design, as well as by the sword mark added subsequently to the lower rim. Provenance: - Christie’s, “Fine European Porcelain and Galanterie” auction, Geneva, November 17, 1978, lot 91. Acquired at the aforementioned auction; in a private collection ever since Bibliography: - Montanus, Arnoldus: Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maetschappy in't Vereenigde Nederland, aen de Kaisaren van Japan. Amsterdam 1669. https://www.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/view/bsb10805844?page=548,549 - Rückert, Rainer: Meissen Porcelain 1710–1810. Munich 1966, p. 69, cat. no. 126. - Ducret, Siegfried: Meissen Porcelain Painted in Augsburg from 1718 to around 1750. Volume: Gold Paintings and Colorful Chinoiseries. Braunschweig 1971, p. 67, cat. nos. 205, 206, 207, 208. - Spiegl, Walter: Meissen Porcelain. Munich 1978, p. 86 Estimated shipping costs for this lot: Domestic: 30.25 euros plus 5.75 euros VAT EU: 46.22 euros plus 8.78 euros VAT Third country: 92.44 euros