The collection of Renate and Rono Dreßen - Royal Meissen porcelain part I

On 13th November, Lempertz once again successfully auctioned a highly important private collection of outstanding Meissen porcelain and impressive glassware from the 17th and 18th centuries. The Münster building contractor Tono Dreßen (1931–2019) had built up this widely acclaimed collection over 40 years, exhibited in the Lackmuseum in Münster and made known to the wider public with its publication by the Deutscher Kunstverlag in 2018 under the title “Blütenlese”.

Tono Dreßen’s love for porcelain began in the 1970s, with a focus on tableware. In this first auction, a selection of 140 lots from his collection were offered, including the exceptional armorial porcelain and service pieces in fine, early ground colours with over 40 single porcelains from the important European court consignments and with the most beautiful decorations by the early Hoeroldt workshop.

With the Meissen porcelain almost completely sold with a quota of over 130% by value, the highest price paid was for a particularly rare writing set in the form of afarmer’s cottage after a 1741 model by Johann Joachim Kaendler and Johann Gottlieb Ehder. The bronze mounting was probably added in Paris in 1755. The rarity was keenly fought over and eventually sold to a German collector for € 47,000, far beyond the estimate of € 6/8,000 (lot 642). A further meteoric rise was seen for a 20 cm long spoon with the coat of arms of Anna Maria Luisa of Medici from before 1743 which was pushed up from € 1/1,500 to € 31,000 (lot 704).

The distinguished collection of important glassware from the 17th and 18th centuries was highly coveted and fetched 185% by value, with prices ranging up to € 18,000 (lot 725).