A Sorgenthal porcelain tête à tête in the Egyptian taste - image-1
A Sorgenthal porcelain tête à tête in the Egyptian taste - image-2
A Sorgenthal porcelain tête à tête in the Egyptian taste - image-1A Sorgenthal porcelain tête à tête in the Egyptian taste - image-2

Lot 24 Dα

A Sorgenthal porcelain tête à tête in the Egyptian taste

Auction 1125 - overview Berlin
07.11.2018, 18:00 - The Twinight Collection I
Estimate: 15.000 € - 20.000 €
Result: 20.625 € (incl. premium)

A Sorgenthal porcelain tête à tête in the Egyptian taste

Comprising an oval tray with pierced border, a jug formed an an ancient Egyptian canopic jar with a lotus flower finial, an oval box and cover with a crocodile finial, a round box and cover with two handles and a sphinx finial, two cups and saucers and one large oval tray. All pieces decorated with gilt framed pseudo-hieroglyphs on sand coloured ground and Egyptian scenes in a Neoclassical style. The medallions of the large sugar box inscribed MICHAEL and SATOVIEL, one cup KANOPVS, one saucer GABRIEEL, and the oval box HON PA/TR BIB. Blue bindenschild mark, year stamps 99, 801, and 802, potter's mark U for Kaspar Hartmann. Canopic jar jug H 22 cm, tray H 5.5, W 43.4 cm.
Vienna, Sorgenthal manufactory, 1799 - 1802.

Sheila K. Tabakoff researched the inscriptions on this service in "The Viennese Porcelain at Palazzo Pitti" (Florence 2002). She found out that they were based on ancient amulets publised as prints by Bernard de Montfaucon in 1757. Tabakoff assumes that the pseudo-hieroglyphs originate from the designs of Piranesi.

Provenance

Christie´s London, 31st March 2008, lot 89.

Literature

A tête à tête in this form (the tray without the pierced gallery) with pale blue ground and without the hieroglyphs published in: Sturm-Bednarczyk/Jobst, Wiener Porzellan des Klassizismus. Die Ära Conrad von Sorgenthal 1784 - 1805, Vienna 2000, p. 41.