An important Meissen porcelain vase with famille vert decor
A rare form after a Japanese design, the original lid with a stylised pinecone finial. Painted in the Kakiemon manner with three sections divided by bands of blue and sea-green floral tendrils containing birds on floral sprigs, bizarrre rocks, and insects. The shoulders and lid decorated with a broad foliate border and three stylised birds. Unglazed base with large engraved and blackened crossed swords mark with pronounced pommels. Three chips to the rim, circular firing cracks to the underside, a small vertical firing crack to the body. H 33.5, without lid H 26.1 cm.
Ca. 1728 - 30, decor attributed to either Johann Ehrenfried Stadler or Adam Friedrich Löwenfinck.
Johann Ehrenfried Stadler (born 1701) is mentioned as a member of the painter's studio at Meissen shortly after Hoeroldt's arrival. He was the first to develop the so-called “Konturchinoiserien”, a term coined by the curator Abraham L. den Blaauwen from Amsterdam. This type of Chinoiserie décor consists of large figures with black or iron-red contours in stiff poses, holding large parasols or other minimal attributes, and differ greatly from the Chinoiseries of Hoeroldt. From two signatures reading “J E S St”, found on a lantern in Dresden dated 1727 and on a saucer, we also know that Stadler specialised in famille vert décor, creating fanciful designs with large-leafed flowers boldly copied from Chinese porcelain.
Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck (1714 - 1754) was accepted as a painting apprentice at the manufactory in 1727 after his parents begged for him to be admitted. At the time this vase was painted, the young man would have been just 14 years old. Despite his youth, Löwenfinck's designs had a significant influence on the manufactory. Inspired by Stadler, Löwenfinck invented his own type of “Konturchinoiserien” in 1730, when he was just 16. These mainly used black contours and had more lively facial expressions. Today, his marvellous designs enrich porcelain collections throughout the world. The attribution of this vase to Löwenfinck has been suggested in consideration of the pieces published in Ulrich Pietsch's recent monograph on the artist.
Literature
A vase with identical decor in the most typical hexagonal form with a caduceus mark in the collection of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, inv. BK-17359-A/B, in: den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 2000, no. 141.
A further vase and cover of this type (with AR mark) in the Ernst Schneider Foundation in Lustheim, in: Weber, vol. II, Munich 2013, no. 108.
A similar vase and cover with slightly more sparse decor lacking the foliate border around the shoulders (but with a palace inventory no.), also in the hexagonal form in the Dresden Porcelain Collection, in: Shono, Japanisches Aritaporzellan im sogenannten Kakiemonstil als Vorbild für die Meißener Porzellanmanufaktur, Munich 1973, illus. 58.
A Japanese vase / jar and cover of the same form in the Ashmoleum Museum in Oxford, inv. no. 1985.49, in: Impey, Japanese export porcelain, Amsterdam 2002, no. 193.
A tankard with identical decor in the former collection of Said and Roswitha Marouf, in: Pietsch, Passion for Meissen, Stuttgart 2010, no. 150, purchased in Lempertz auction 919 on 16th May 2008, lot 59.
Similar bizarre flower decor on two vases in a private collection in Berlin, pub. in: Phantastische Welten. Malerei auf Meissener Porzellan und deutschen Fayencen von Adam Friedrich von Löwenfinck 1714 - 1754, Dresden-Stuttgart 2014, no. 46.
For more information on Stadler, see cat.: Triumph der blauen Schwerter, Dresden-Leipzig 2010, no. 88 ff.
For archival records on Stadler and Löwenfinck see: Rückert, Biographische Daten, Munich 1990, p. 171 f. and p. 194.