A Vienna porcelain cup and saucer with a view of the Schottenkirche
Of cylindrical form with angular handle and original saucer. The display side painted with a view labelled "Vue de l´église et de la Place des Ecoßais." The reverse of the cup and the saucer with floral motifs. Blue "bindenschild" mark, grey 96., year stamp 809, dreher's number 51.
Vienna, Imperial porcelain manufactory under Matthias Niedermayer, fired 1809, painted by Anton Kothgasser.
The Twinight Collection contains four Vienna porcelain cups attributed to the well-known glass and porcelain painter Anton Kothgasser (1769 - 1851). He was employed at the manufactory as of 1784 but in 1816 he officially gained the allowance to continue his glass painting activities at home. Around the year 1811 he learnt the technique of transparent painting from the young chemist and glass painter Gottlob Samuel Mohn (1789 - 1825), and he was able to use this knowledge to become the leading Vienna glass painter of the Biedermeier era. Interestingly, two of the cups in the Twinight Collection have a pale mimosa-yellow ground anticipating the glaze he later used on glass.
Provenance
Dorotheum Vienna, 3rd April 2006, lot 144.
Literature
A very similar cup by Kothgasser in the Liechtenstein Museum in Vienna (cat. Prachtware, Vienna 2010, no. 9.6).
For more on Kothgasser cf.: Paul v. Lichtenberg, Mohn & Kothgasser Transparent bemaltes Biedermeierglas, Munich 2009, p. 268 ff.