A Meissen porcelain tureen and dish with “yellow lion” motifs
With original lid. The well of the dish, the lid and tureen painted with a tiger prowling through bamboo and a tree stump with a tall flowering prunus sprig. Blue crossed swords mark, blue dash to the basal ring (tureen), later black K. owner's marks. (tureen). The pine cone finial with minor chips, the plate with slight wear. The décor of the lid presumably originally slightly misfired and then filed down. Tureen H 13.5 dish D 25.1 cm.
Ca. 1734 – 39.
This tiger and bamboo motif appears in the inventory of the Royal Court Confectionery in 1731 under the name "yellow lion", encompassing at least 111 pieces of tableware. The decoration was already produced for Lemaire, but under a different name. After the end of the Lemaire-Hoym affair and the fall of Count Carl Heinrich von Hoym (1694 - 1736), his entire porcelain collection was transferred to the Japanese Palace. From 1734 onwards, work began on a dinner service with a yellow lion for the new King August III. In the same year, however, the Bishop of Krakow, Prince Jan Alexander Lipski, also received such a service as a gift for his support in August III's candidacy as Polish king. Fifty three bowls in nine sizes are documented as belonging to this service (Weber, ibid. p. 265 ff), and the tureen presented here may also originate from this delivery.
Provenance
Private collection, Palatinate.
Literature
Cf. Weber, Meißener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern, vol. II, Munich 2013, no. 255, for an identical dish once housed in the Japanisches Palais.