A rare Berlin KPM porcelain plate from a service with chinoiserie decor - image-1
A rare Berlin KPM porcelain plate from a service with chinoiserie decor - image-2
A rare Berlin KPM porcelain plate from a service with chinoiserie decor - image-1A rare Berlin KPM porcelain plate from a service with chinoiserie decor - image-2

Lot 241 Dα

A rare Berlin KPM porcelain plate from a service with chinoiserie decor

Auction 1150 - overview Berlin
16.05.2020, 12:00 - The Prussian Sale
Estimate: 6.000 € - 8.000 €
Result: 7.500 € (incl. premium)

A rare Berlin KPM porcelain plate from a service with chinoiserie decor

Model no. 1113. The well decorated with a scene of two figures balancing on a scale in a chinoiserie landscape in the manner of Jean-Baptiste Pillement. The border painted with indianische blumen and four large exotic birds. Blue sceptre mark with blue enamel dash above, pressnummer 13, incised III. Minor wear to the upper part of the well. D 24.4 cm.
Circa 1800, decor attributed to Christian Ludwig Fehr.

Towards the end of the Ancien Régime, the royal porcelain manufactory at Sèvres produced several services based on and interpreting Chinoiserie motifs in the manner of Jean-Baptiste Pillement. KPM pursued an entirely different style in the late 18th century, and the Sèvres influence only began to increase following the French occupation of Prussia, when KPM decided to follow the international Empire style. However, this plate shows that the manufactory was also interested in copying earlier French fashions, especially the advanced ground techniques which KPM learnt from knowledgable painters who arrived at the manufactory during this period. At Sèvres, the painter and gilder Pierre André Le Guay specialised in this technique, which was intended to imitate Chinese lacquer décor.

Literature

A plate with identical decor but with the ground colours exchanged was formerly housed in the collection of Dr. Karl Heinz Wadsack, sold by Christie´s London on 8th October 2002, lot 228, signed by Fehr.
For more information on Fehr cf. cat.: Raffinesse & Eleganz, Munich 2007, p. 383. Eva Wollschläger identifies Ludwig Fehr with an apprentice who arrived at the manufactory in 1789 and specialised in figure painting.
For a similarly decorated Sèvres service made after 1790, cf.: Brunet/Préaud, Sèvres, Fribourg 1978, illus. 300 f., p. 224.