A Meissen porcelain plate from a service with the armorials of King of Sweden
Marseille model. The well decorated with the crowned coat of arms supported on a bracket by two lions against a purple drapery. Blue crossed swords mark, unidentified dreher's mark with two indented crosses. D 22.6 cm.
1732.
Lars Ljungström researched the history of this diplomatic gift, presented by the Saxon King Augustus II to the Swedish royal couple Ulrika Eleonora and Frederik I, for the catalogue "Fragile Diplomacy". The initial delivery included a tea and hot chocolate service, a small dinner service (comprising three dozen plates, two tureens, four salad bowls and fifteen platters) as well as two sets of sumptuous vases. Following the conclusion of the Great Northern War and the signing of the peace treaty in October 1732, Augustus II was interested in getting the Scandinavian state on his side, especially since Sweden still recognised Stanislav Leszczynski as the legitimate king of Poland and not Augustus, who had been re-elected in 1709. The opulent gift only arrived at the Swedish court on 29th May 1734, by which time the Saxon king had been dead for over a year. However, his son Augustus III succeeded him as king of Poland, and thus the present retained its diplomatic relevance.
The gift which the Swedish Queen Ulrika Eleonora and her consort Frederik (also Landgrave of Hesse-Kassel in a personal union as Friedrich) gave in return reached the Saxon court significantly earlier. Shortly after the signing of the peace treaty, on 18th November 1732, several "boxes" (possibly cages) containing two lions, two tigers and an Indian wildcat were sent to King Augustus from Lübeck for his famous menagerie in the royal lion house in Dresden.
Literature
Cf. a snuff box with this coat of arms in: Pietsch, Passion for Meissen. Sammlung Said und Roswitha Marouf, Stuttgart 2010, no. 75.
Cf. also: Ljungström, Sweden, Hesse-Cassel, and Meissen: The Fragile Peace, in: Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), Fragile Diplomacy. Meissen Porcelain for European Courts ca. 1710 - 63, New Haven-London 2007, p. 257 ff. This article mentions the famous five piece vase garniture with the central heraldic vase in the National Museum in Stockholm (inv. no. NMK 125/1940) as well as several other items from the armorial serive in the royal collections in Stockholm.
For more on the Marseille model, see: Boltz, Japanisches Palais-Inventar 1770 und Turmzimmer-Inventar 1769, in: Keramos 153/1996, illus. 53.