A Berlin KPM porcelain vase with two signed views of Potsdam
"Redensche vase" model, fired in two pieces and screw-mounted. Painted with labelled views of Potsdam seen from the corner window of Prince Carl's apartment and Prince Carl's palace in Potsdam in two rectangular gilt framed reserves. The view of the palace is signed in the lower right "J. Forst. fecit." The lower section of the vase and the base decorated with burnished gold arabesques on vermicelli ground. Blue sceptre mark, brown imperial eagle mark. H 41.8 cm.
Circa 1825, painted by Johann Eusebius Anton Forst.
Prince Carl of Prussia (1801 - 83) purchased the country mansion in Glienicke in 1823. In 1825 he began with renovations after plans by Karl Friedrich Schinkel. The intimate motif, showing the proud owner's view over the newly acquired lands from the window his private apartment speaks for the assumption that the vase was commissioned by the prince himself. This view is the one which was signed by Johann Eusebius Anton Forst. The second image is a well-known view of Potsdam after a design by August Wilhelm Schirmer, and was thus not one of Forst's original inventions.
Provenance
From Bavarian private ownership.
Lempertz Cologne auction 986, 18th November 2011, lot 178.
Literature
Cf. Wittwer (ed.), Raffinesse & Eleganz, Munich 2007, no. 109, an additional vase from the Twinight Collection painted with the same view sold by Lempertz on 7th October 2018, lot 106.