A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-1
A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-2
A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-3
A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-4
A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-5
A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-6
A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-1A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-2A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-3A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-4A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-5A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case - image-6

Lot 1013 Dα

A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case

Auction 1196 - overview Cologne
20.05.2022, 10:00 - Decorative Arts incl. Highly Important Mortars the Schwarzach Collection Part IV.
Estimate: 45.000 € - 50.000 €
Result: 57.500 € (incl. premium)

A museum quality Régence silver cutlery set in the original leather case

36-piece silver gilt cutlery set comprising 12 knives, forks and spoons. The knives and forks with handles made of Meissen porcelain painted with tendrils in underglaze blue with remnants of gilding, Oriental flowers and fanciful birds. The spoons with egg-shaped bowls, the handles terminating in finely engraved scrollwork cartouche motifs. In the original shell-shaped leather case lined with green velvet. L of knives 25; of spoons 19.3 cm. Weight of each spoon c. 70 g. D of case when opened 62 cm.
Marks of Johann Engelbrecht, the steel knife blades with forge marks, 1721 – 1725.

Cutlery sets with porcelain handles made in the "Japanese taste" were extremely popular at the courts of Europe in the 1720s. The delivery specifications preserved in the archives of the Dresden Porcelain Collection note "36 blue and red knife handles enamelled with gold for knives, forks and spoons", which were sent to Warsaw on 16th October 1724 "by the most gracious high royal command" of Augustus the Strong.
From the very beginning, the Meissen manufactory sought close trade relations with the Augsburg goldsmiths, on the one hand to profit from their distribution network and, on the other, to have their porcelain items upgraded with gold decorations and silver settings. Conversely, orders were also placed in Meissen from Augsburg. For example, four guéridons with Meissen porcelain inlays by Johann Engelbrecht have survived and are now housed in the Munich Residenz (Seling 1980, plate XXXII). The Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam preserves a centrepiece by Engelbrecht with a tea service made of Meissen porcelain (Seling 1980, plate XXXI).

Literature

Cf. two almost identical cutlery sets in shell-shaped cases illus. in Julia Weber, Meißener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern, vol. II, Munich 2013, p. 49 ff.
For more on orders from the court of Saxony, see ibid. p. 50.
Cf. also Ulrike Weinhold, Emailmalerei an Augsburger Goldschmiedearbeiten von 1650 bis 1750, Munich 2000, p. 169 f for more on the trade relations between Augsburg and Meissen in the 18th C.
Cf. also a travel cutlery set by Engelbrecht in a leather case illus. in cat. Augsburger Goldschmiedekunst für die Höfe Europas, Munich 1994, no. 117.