Lot 1181 Dα

One of the most famous luxury products to be produced in Berlin in the 18th century was the so-called “émail de Saxe”. The invention of this special form of enamel paint goes back to the French-born Pierre Fromery (1655 - 1738), who was also active as an armour smith to the court. His fancy goods store also employed an especially talented young enamel painter from Berlin named Christian Friedrich Herold, who was born in around 1700. He was later employed as a journeyman at the prestigious new painting studio of the Meissen porcelain manufactory under Johann Gregorius Hoeroldt in 1725, and was already promoted to porcelain painter there on 8th January 1726. He first focussed on the repertoire of “Fine Japanese figures and landscapes” developed by Hoeroldt, but at the same time he developed his own specialist subject: the so-called “merchant navy scenes”. These compositions, which depict scenes of merchants in Southern European harbour towns, also decorate the present work. It was an obvious choice of motif, since Meissen produced numerous coffee, tea, and hot chocolate services for the European aristocracy, and the ingredients for these drinks were brought to Europe by ship from the colonies. Alongside working for Meissen, Christian Friedrich Herold continued working for Pierre Fromery and later for his son Alexander. This is documented in the findings of a search carried out at his apartment in Meissen in January 1737, in which works painted on copper were discovered. In 1744 he was also found guilty of stealing purple pigment, which he needed for the decoration of copper boxes, and punished with four weeks imprisonment. The term “émail de Saxe” for these products was presumably coined in France, but it may also have been invented by the Frenchman Pierre Fromery or his industrious son Alexander. However, it was Christian Friedrich Herold who gave the firm the right to bear this name.