A rare Berlin KPM porcelain plate from a general's service
Model no. 1054. The well decorated with a Neoclassical helmet in bronze-coloured camaieu picked out in gilt. The border with an oak and laurel wreath entwined by a yellow ribbon. Blue sceptre mark, iron red dash, gold and brown astrological symbol of Mars, pressnummer 16, incised III. D 24.6 cm.
C. 1817/18.
This exceptionally finely painted plate was produced in connection to the generals' services, most certainly at the same time. Salad and compote dishes decorated with similar helmet motifs produced as part of the service for the Duke of Wellington - begun in 1816 – are today kept in Apsley House. However, the gold borders of this piece differ from those of the Duke of Wellington service, as do the wreaths, which are merely entwined by the ribbon and not bound by it. This indicates that the present work either formed part of a different commission or that it was produced as a test piece for the Wellington service.
In the catalogue of Apsley House, Winfried and Ilse Baer write that the commission for the Duke was preceded by a number of other gifts of porcelain. These were shipped together from Hamburg to London in 32 large boxes in June 1818 (ibidem, p. 15). However, it is also conceivable that this plate originates from another of the table services which Friedrich Wilhelm III presented to the most outstanding Prussian and allied soldiers in the wake of the German campaign.
Provenance
Collection of Renate and Tono Dreßen.
Literature
Cf. the helmet on the compote dish from the Wellington service in: Baer/Baer, Das Tafelservice der KPM für den Herzog von Wellington, Berlin 1988, p. 100, no. 82.