A Meissen porcelain dish with a red dragon and K.H.C. mark
The well painted with two circling fenghuang birds, the border with two large gold-scaled dragons and two Chinese knots with scrolls and coins. Small insects painted over firing flaws. Blue crossed swords mark, dreher's number 16, purple owner's mark K. H. C. With a small rim chip and minor scratches to the base. D 29.5, H 4.7 cm.
Circa 1740 - 50.
Work on the Dresden court service with the red dragon ordered by King Augustus III began in early November 1734. Deliveries to the royal confectioners are recorded until 1739. In 1751, 228 plates and 461 dishes in five different sizes are listed as still in existence, which gives us an idea of the dimensions of this service. Julia Weber mentions the eldest inventory of the Dresden court kitchens as containing "18 (pieces) small compote dishes". The red number was added to this piece during the course of this inventory, which Prince Elector Friedrich Augustus III commissioned Oberküchenmeister Christoph Wilhelm von Kessel to carry out on 10th December 1764.
The first large assortment of porcelain from the royal collections (now the Saxon State Collections Dresden) was sold in Berlin by Lepke auction house in October 1920. It is conceivable that this dish was sold there and later found its way onto the art market.
Provenance
Berlin private collection.
Literature
Further items from this extensive service in Weber, Meißener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern, vol. II, Munich 2013, cat. 243.
Cf. also cat. Triumph der blauen Schwerter, Dresden-Leipzig 2010, no. 236 ff., p. 276.