A Berlin KPM porcelain vase with two views of Berlin
Vase fired in three pieces and screw mounted. With rosette-form handles. Decorated to both sides with two gilt-framed reserves painted with annotated views of Brandenburg Gate and the Berlin Museum. Blue sceptre mark with KPM, red imperial orb mark, black star. H 69,5 cm. The vase will be sold together with a special custom-made marble base.
1837 - 44.
Alongside the Glyptothek designed by Klenze in Munich, the Royal Berlin Museum is the oldest museum in Germany. The Grecian style edifice was conceived by the architect and city planner Karl Friedrich Schinkel and can be considered one of his grandest masterpieces. The building was inaugrated and opened on 3rd August 1830, the 60th birthday of King Frederick William III. The enormous bowl fashioned from a single piece of granite, the so-called "Wonder of the Biedermeier", can still be found in front of the museum to this day. It was originally designed to be placed in the rotunda in the heart of the building, but logistical errors made this impossible. The pleasure gardens stretching out before the museum were the first public park to be opened in central Berlin, and still exists today in almost indentical form.
The combined views of Brandenburg Gate and the new Museum express the patron's pride in his modern city. The boulevard Unter den Linden behind Brandenburg Gate leads directly to the pleasure gardens, museums and Berlin Cathedral, which can be seen on the far right edge of the view.
Provenance
Formerly the Preussag Collection.