A Berlin KPM porcelain krater-form vase with a view of Potsdam
Decorated throughout with gilt and etched tendrils; a large reserve to one side with a view inscribed "Potsdam von Glienicke aus gesehen" (Potsdam seen from Glienicke) and to the other an oval-framed portrait of Frederick William III in biscuit porcelain after Leonhard Posch. The vase with blue sceptre mark and red eagle mark with K.P.M., painter's mark. The base with blue sceptre mark and orange dash. One handle reattached, a breakage to the upper edge of the vase base. The base and vase were consigned together, but the ground colours of the two pieces do not match exactly. H 51, H with base 70.5; upper diameter 34 cm.
The vase ca. 1825/30, the base slightly earlier. The vase design attributed to Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The view based on a painting by Peter Ludwig Lütke.
The relief portrait of the King indicates that this vase was presented as a gift by the monarch. The view is based on a work by the landscape painter Peter Ludwig Lütke which shows Glienicke circa 1795 with the Baroque farm building which Prince Charles purchased in 1824 and had remodelled by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, showing that at the time the vase was made the view towards Potsdam still led over the Prince's villa.
Literature
A vase with a view of Potsdam in the Twinight Collection, Munich 2007, illus. cat. 109.