A pair of signed Berlin KPM porcelain vases with views of Berlin
With ormolu mountings. "Redensche vase" model, fired in two parts and screw-mounted. Each vase with two rectangular reserves surrounded by gilt foliate borders, each depicting a different view of Berlin, the first two labelled: "Das Potsdamer Thor in Berlin." and "Die Leipziger Straße in Berlin vom Döhnhofs Platz aus gesehen." The view of Potsdam Gate is signed in the lower left "J. Forst. fecit." The second vase depicts views of "Die Bibliothek in Berlin" and "Das neue Museum in Berlin". The lower sections of both decorated with gilt etched arabesques and stiff foliage. Blue sceptre mark, brown imperial eagle mark, black I and n, owner's label of the inventory of Schloß Baden. H 42.8, upper D 28 and 29 cm.
1824 - 1831, painted by Johann Eusebius Anton Forst.
The two gatehouses on Leipziger Platz built by Karl Friedrich Schinkel in the form of Neoclassical temples in the background of the signed view allow us to date these vases with some precision. The architect began these buildings in 1824, and the square was first renamed Potsdamer Platz in 1831. The artist has chosen an interesting view of the city seen through the gate's arched entranceway, and this view creates a kind of introduction to Berlin as a motif. The depiction on the reverse of this vase depicts today´s Leipziger Strasse facing Southwest, with Dönhoffplatz on the left and the obelisks of "Meile 0" in the centre. The two remaining images depict more well-known buildings from Berlin city centre, the Neues Museum and the library, called the "Kommode", the depiction of which is probably not based on one of Forst's inventions. The museum is missing the granite bowl from the great Markgrafenstein, which was placed there temporarily in 1831. This provides us with a terminus ante quem, a date before which the vases must have been painted.
Provenance
Private ownership S.K.H. Großherzog Friedrich I. von Baden, Neues Schloss, Baden-Baden, (inv. p. 381, "No 19 und 20 - Haupt-Gebäude IIItes Stockwerk, No. 76. Salon", later "IItes Stockerk, Apartments S.K.H. des Erzgroßherzogs, No. 37 Salon")
Sotheby´s Baden-Baden, 6th October 1995, lot 834.
Acquired in 2006 from a Berlin private collection.
Literature
Illus. in: Witttwer (ed.), Raffinesse & Eleganz, Munich 2007, p. 349. He ascribes the vases to Eduard Wilhelm Forst. However, the signature is unmistakably that of Johann Eusebius Anton Forst.