A Berlin KPM porcelain night light formed as a vase - image-1
A Berlin KPM porcelain night light formed as a vase - image-2
A Berlin KPM porcelain night light formed as a vase - image-3
A Berlin KPM porcelain night light formed as a vase - image-1A Berlin KPM porcelain night light formed as a vase - image-2A Berlin KPM porcelain night light formed as a vase - image-3

Lot 249 Dα

A Berlin KPM porcelain night light formed as a vase

Auction 1150 - overview Berlin
16.05.2020, 12:00 - The Prussian Sale
Estimate: 25.000 € - 35.000 €

A Berlin KPM porcelain night light formed as a vase

Unidentified model fired in two parts. Designed as a slender lekythos-form vase on a short waisted shaft and square plinth. The separately fired funnel-shaped neck with pierced flowerhead decor and angular handles. The rim decorated with a relief frieze of gilt acanthus leaves above pharoah's masks. The centre of the vase depicts a wedding scene in biscuit porcelain relief. The neck and lower section of the vase richly decorated with gilt arabesques. The interior with a biscuit porcelain rosette in imitation of bronze mountings within a circle of pierced openings. Blue sceptre mark, pressnummers 4 and 34. A chip to one edge of the plinth, an unobtrusive firing crack to the lid. H 34.5 cm.
Circa 1810.

This model was developed by the model master Riese in 1793. It was designed as a porcelain version of an alabaster lamp sent for study to the manufactory from Rome by the Academy Professor Friedrich Rehberg. The figural scene is a bas-relief recreation of a Roman fresco from the Augustinian era depicting a wedding procession which is named after its first owner, Cardinal Cinzio Passeri Aldobrandini, and has been housed in the Vatican library since 1818. The piece was given a new connotation in Prussia when Friedrich Anton von Heynitz, Chairman of the Berlin Academy Commission, praised Riese's design highly and suggested that it would make an excellent room decoration for the wedding night of Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm, who married Luise von Mecklenburg-Strelitz on 24th December 1793. Samuel Wittwer lists further examples of this piece commissioned by the French Empress Joséphine, who used them as flower vases. A third example was produced as part of the wedding service for Princess Alexandrine. The Generals' service also included a slightly amended version of the model, made more imposing by the inclusion of additional relief appliques.

Provenance

Private collection, Berlin.

Literature

A second example of the night light with a bronze coloured relief in: Wittwer (Zwischen Wien und Paris - Die Berliner Porzellan-Manufaktur KPM zu Beginn des 19. Jahrhunderts und ihre Werke im europäischen Kontext, in: cat. Raffinesse & Eleganz, Munich 2007, illus. 71).
Cf. also the vases from the generals' service, one in the Hessische Hausstiftung, inv. no. FAS Pe 685/a-b (cat. Orden auf königlichem Porzellan, Petersberg 2013, no. 3.21); a second example from the Twinight Collection sold by Lempertz Berlin on 6th April 2019, lot 40.