A rare pair of Meissen porcelain chestnut pots
Fluted openwork dishes decorated with Chinoiserie figures in four reserves. The finials formed as chestnuts on leaves. Unglazed base, blue crossed swords mark with dot and Mö to the interior. With a restored breakage to the base of one chestnut pot. H 17.5, D 16.9 cm.
Model by Michel Victor Acier, 1780.
In the 18th century, there are said to have been no sweet chestnuts (Castanea sativa) in Saxony. The chestnut therefore had to be imported - from Italy or West Germany - and thus acquired at a high price. It was probably considered a great delicacy - reason enough to dedicate a separate vessel to it. Even before Meissen, the manufactories in Ansbach, Frankenthal, Fürstenberg and Ludwigsburg produced chestnut pots based on the first porcelain model from the manufactory in Sèvres, the lid of which, significantly, is also crowned with a sculpted fruit. The pot from Meissen is a rather conservatively designed product. Almost all of the decorative elements, except for the relief hoop around the lid that is wrapped in a ribbon, derive from the first production period in Meissen, the time after 1710.
Provenance
Private collection, Rhineland.
Literature
Illus. in Schneider (ed.), "Kobaltblau" Meißener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts aus einer rheinischen Privatsammlung, Aachen 2001, cat. no. 27.
Illus. in Flach/Krueger, "Maroni heiß und lecker" Kastanientöpfe aus Porzellan, Fayence, Steingut und Steinzeug (Schriften zur Geschichte des Fürstenberger Porzellans), Holzminden 2010, cat. no. 270 and illus. 32.
This model pub. in Goder, Michel Victor Acier zum 250. Geburtstag, in: Keramos 112/1986, p. 37.
For the decor of the reserves cf. illus. of the Chinese service in v. Barsewisch, Unterglasurblaue Malerei, in: Keramos 121/1988, illus. 120 ff, p. 84.
Exhibitions
Couven-Museum Aachen 30th June to 30th September 2001.
LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur Münster 2001.
Museum Schloss Fürstenberg 2010.