Lot 194 Dα

"Le Baron Alexandre de Humboldt veut bien se charger de Vous remettre de ma part un vase en porcelaine de Berlin. Je Vous prie, Monsieur, de recevoir ce petit cadeau comme un Souvenir de quelqun qui Se reßouvient avec le plus vif interèt de momens paßés avec Vous à Paris & à Vertus & come un témoignage de la reconnaißance que je Vous dois pour les beaux ouvrages que je Vous avez bien voulu me donner. Frederic Guillaume Prince royale de Pruße"
(Baron Alexander von Humboldt would like to present you in my name a vase made of Berlin porcelain. I ask you, Monsieur, to receive this small gift as a memento of someone who remembers with the greatest interest the moments he spent with you in Paris and Vertus, and as a testimony of the gratitude I owe you for the beautiful works you wanted to give me.
Frederick William Royal Prince of Prussia).

Pierre François Léonard Fontaine (1762 - 1853) was one of the most influential architects of the Empire. Together with Charles Percier (1764 - 1838) he built the Arc de Triomphe on the Place du Carrousel, opposite the Louvre. He achieved particular fame, however, through his publications from 1798 of reproductions and designs for classical interior decoration, including "Palais, maisons et autres édifices modernes dessinés à Rome", and the famous "Recueil de décoration intérieure concernant tout ce qui rapporte à l'ameublement" from 1812, which is still considered the authoritative work on late classicism. Frederick William (1795 - 1861, the later King Frederick William IV) was familiar with these books and hoped to obtain a commitment from Fontaine for the planning of a residence. This wish probably arose as early as 1815, when the two, the 20-year-old crown prince and the architect, met for the second time (see Johannsen, Friedrich Wilhelm IV von Preußen. Von Borneo nach Rom. Sanssouci und die Residenzprojekte 1814 bis 1848, Kiel 2007).