A Kelsterbach porcelain snuff box with a portrait of Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt
Moulded cartouche form snuff box with chased and moulded gilt copper mountings. All outer faces decorated with hunting scenes in rocaille surrounds. The lid with a magnificent view of a hunting party outside of Dianaburg castle, the interior painted with a portrait of Landgrave Ludwig VIII in an Austrian field marshal's uniform with the sash and star of the Danish Order of the Elephant and the Polish Order of the White Eagle. The lid signed "Wo pinxit", impressed mark crowned HD to the interior. H 4.2, W 7.8, D 6.8 cm.
C. 1767/68, decor by Friedrich Carl Wohlfahrt.
The depiction of Dianaburg and the portrait of the Landgrave are based on works by the Darmstadt court painters Georg Adam Eger (1727 - 1808) and Johann Christian Fiedler (1697 - 1765). The view of a parforce hunt outside Dianaburg castle is today housed in Kranichstein hunting palace (inv. no. 004/001/18), the portrait by Fiedler in the Schlossmuseum Darmstadt (inv. no. DA B 21605).
The porcelain painter Carl Friedrich Wohlfahrt was born in Ellwangen and is documented as having worked in several German porcelain manufactories. Despite this, little is known about his life. His career brought him from Höchst to Frankenthal and then to Kelsterbach before going on to Gutenbrunn, Ottweiler, and then back to Höchst. He is thought to have died in 1778. The decoration of this box is particularly well rendered, which is presumably why he signed it. Its fineness and attention to detail even exceed that found in the paintings upon which the motifs are based.
The sitter, Landgrave Ludwig VIII of Hesse-Darmstadt (1691 - 1768), was a patron of the arts and a passionate hunter, known as the "hunting landgrave". The small hunting palace of Dianaburg, which he had built near Darmstadt in around 1765, was one of his favourite residences.
Literature
Similar snuff boxes with decor after the same prototype in: Christ, Kelsterbacher Porzellan. Der Bestand der Großherzoglich-Hessischen Porzellansammlung Darmstadt, Stuttgart 2004, no. 79 - 81.