An important Meissen porcelain cup and cover "Abelard et Heloise." - image-1

Lot 1430 Dα

An important Meissen porcelain cup and cover "Abelard et Heloise."

Auction 1230 - overview Cologne
17.11.2023, 10:00 - Decorative Arts - Silver, Porcelain, Faience
Estimate: 2.500 € - 3.000 €

An important Meissen porcelain cup and cover "Abelard et Heloise."

Painted with portraits of the literary figures in oval medallions. Blue crossed swords mark with star. Minor wear to the gilded edging. H with lid 9.6, D saucer 14 cm.
1780 - 90, decor attributed to Johann Gottfried Beeger.

The portraits of the two literary figures are based on French mezzotints that appeared after the publication of Jean-Jacques Rousseau's "Julie ou la Nouvelle Héloïse" in 1761. The theme of doomed love, already known from the poetry of Alexander Pope, gained new popularity through this epistolary novel.
The fine miniature painting in the two oval wreath medallions can be attributed to the Meissen painter Beeger, one of the best painters in Johann George Loehnig's studio.

Literature

For this motif and its sources see Wegner, Literatur auf Porzellan - Abälard und Heloise, in: Keramos 202/2008, p. 39 ff.