A Berlin KPM biscuit porcelain figure of General Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow
A porcelain reproduction of the marble statue from 1822 that now stands on Bebelplatz behind the Berlin State Opera. The General is depicted standing in contrapposto in uniform with the star and cross of the Order of the Black Eagle. He rests his right hand on his hip, drawing back his cloak, and in his left hand he would have held a rapier (now lost). On an associated Neoclassical plinth with a frontal fountain niche. Bue sceptre mark to the underside (rough, with textile imprint), incised marks, blue sceptre mark with circle to the plinth, impressed Z, incised X to the top of the plinth. An open firing crack with some breakage to the lower corner of the plinth, two corners cracked, other firing cracks and chips. H figure 27.5, H with plinth 48.9 cm,
Ca. 1856, after Christian Daniel Rauch.
Frederick William III raised Baron Friedrich Wilhelm von Bülow, Count von Dennewitz (1755 - 1816), as a knight in the Order of the Black Eagle in April 1814 following the Prussian invasion of Paris. He had already received the Pour le Mérite order in his early years (1793). Following the successful defense of Berlin in the Battle of Dennewitz on 6th September 1813 and the victory against Marshal Ney, Bülow received the oak leaves to accompany the Pour le Mérite. General von Bülow became known as "der allzeit glückliche Bülow" (the ever-lucky Bülow) as he was the only general of his era never to lose a battle.
Literature
Further examples in the Deutsches Historisches Museum in Berlin and in the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (in: Köllmann/Jarchow, Bildband, p. 391, no. 206).