A Dresden silver hot milk jug from the Dresden court silver
Cylindrical vessel with wooden handle and short spout. Monogrammed on the underside "FA" in a shield beneath an electoral crown, with inventory number 6 below and weight "2 Mr. 4 lt. 1 q. 3 d.". Gilt interior. H 14.6 cm, weight 560 g.
Marks of Carl David Schrödel, 1755.
After the death of his father, Augustus the Strong, in Warsaw in 1733, Frederick Augustus II (1696 - 1763) became Elector of Saxony. In the same year, he ordered a revision of the richly filled court silver collection, which contained at least six extensive services, some of which consisted of several hundred pieces (cf. Arnold p. 31). Frederick Augustus II had some of the earlier sets melted down, but new services were also ordered in return.
The Dresden goldsmith families Ingermann and Schrödel, who had been producing silver for the court since 1724, played a decisive role in the redesign of the court silver collection.
In the newly compiled "Churfürstl.-Sächßl. Silber-Kammer-Inventarium", the head kitchen master and court economic director Melchior Heinrich v. Breitenbauch noted in 1789 in volume 2, chapter III, section 9 "An Silbernen Thee und Cafe Zeuge" ("On silver tea and coffee items) "Zweÿ große glatt runde Cafe oder Milchkannen ohne Bächern, innenig vergoldet (...) mit FA im Schilde" ("Two large smooth round coffee or milk jugs without bellies, gilded inside (...) with FA in the shield"); including our "No. 6" with the weights given in the engraving in Mark, Lot, Quent and Pfennig.
Provenance
Private collection Luxembourg; offered in Lempertz auction 622, June 1987, lot 1433; Kunsthandel Fritz Payer, Zurich; West German private collection.
Literature
On the court silver chamber, see above all Ulli Arnold, Dresdner Hofsilber des 18. Jahrhunderts, publication of the Kulturstiftung der Länder and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Berlin/Dresden 1994, p. 30 ff., and, on the Schrödels' master marks, ibid. p. 51.