A rare KPM porcelain vase depicting Nike crowning the victor - image-1

Lot 306 Dα

A rare KPM porcelain vase depicting Nike crowning the victor

Auction 1150 - overview Berlin
16.05.2020, 12:00 - The Prussian Sale
Estimate: 3.000 € - 4.000 €
Result: 2.750 € (incl. premium)

A rare KPM porcelain vase depicting Nike crowning the victor

Model no. 1606. Flower vase with decorative handle, fired in two pieces and screw-mounted. The display side decorated with a winged female figure placing a laurel wreath upon the head of a warrior with a sword. The neck and base decorated with stylised ivy tendrils. Blue sceptre mark with round stamp, red imperial orb mark, impressed K, incised III. H 42 cm.
Circa / after 1853.

The décor of this piece is based on a model by Sèvres. The first example of a vase with Etruscan décor was delivered to Saint-Cloud on 6th May 1806. This piece was decorated with a Neoclassical allegory of the Battle of Austerlitz and thus it is conceivable that decor of the present Berlin vase represents an allegory of the March Revolution of 1848. The motif is based on the two-figure sculptural group “Nike crowning the Victor” by Friedrich Drake, which was completed in 1853 and erected on the Schlossbrücke according to a design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel.

Literature

Cf. cat. Raffinesse & Eleganz, Munich 2007, illus. 127 f., a pattern sample and a cup painted with the same decor dated between 1835 and 1845.
Cf. also Brunet/Préaut, Sèvres. Des origines à nos jours, Fribourg 1978, illus. 334.