An important Meissen porcelain teapot with K.P.M. Mark and famille verte decor
Compressed bulbous vessel with handle and spout issuing from mascarons. The original lid with a disc shaped finial and gilt lace decor. Painted with two Chinese ladies, one of which with a fan, standing in front of a pavillion and a stylised landscape with another figure carrying a child. The opposite side with a Chinese boy seen from the back alongside rock formations and palms. Blue crossed swords mark with K.P.M. The interior not entirely glazed. H 13 cm.
1723, the painting ca./after 1760.
An identical teapot from the collection of Gustav and Charlotte von Klemperer with the M.P.M mark established in 1722 was sold by Bonhams in London on 26th November 2014 as lot 176.
A further teapot of this type was formerly housed in the collections of Erich von Goldschmidt-Rothschild (auctioned by H. Ball & P. Graupe, Berlin, 23rd-25th March 1931, los 483) and Otto and Magdalena Blohm (published in Schmidt, Early European Porcelain as collected by Otto Blohm, Munich 1953, no. 21, auctioned in The Blohm Collection Sotheby & Co London on 4th July 1960, lot 137). The lid of this teapot is decorated differently to the others and bears the K.P.F mark established in November 1722.
This teapot is marked K.P.M, a mark announced on 7th April 1723 (Rückert, Munich 1966, p. 38).
Thus, all teapots of this kind bear differing manufactory marks, which is highly unusual, but all can be dated to the time between 1722 – 1723.
Meissen also produced three similarly decorated goblets during this time period: Two were housed in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam until very recently (formerly in the collection of Franz and Margarete Oppenheimer, Berlin, and then in the collection of Fritz Mannheimer, Amsterdam, published by den Blaauwen, a.a.O., no. 19). They were both sold by Sotheby's New York on 14th September 2021 as restitutions and achieved record prices for works of this period. The third goblet with this décor is housed in the Dresdner Porzellansammlung (published in Walcha, Meissner Porzellan, Dresden 1973, illus. 46).
Certificate
We would like to thank Professor Gunnar Heydenreich and Diana Blumenroth TU Cologne and Professor Andrew Shortland Cranfield University for performing and analysing an XRF.
Provenance
The Domanski Collection, acquired from the descendents of an American collector.
Literature
For this decor cf. The two goblets in den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 2000, no. 19.