A rare Meissen porcelain soup bowl from the Swan Service
A deep, scalloped bowl with shell relief mouldings. Decorated to the centre with crisp relief depicting two swans on the water and two herons amid reeds. The border with scattered "indianische blumen" and the slightly off-centre arms of alliance of Brühl-Kolowrat-Krakovský to the upper edge. Blue crossed swords mark, impressed former's mark four concentric triangles. A small, filled loss to the glaze of the underside at the 9 o'clock position, minimal localised wear to the enamel decor. H 5.1, D 24 cm
1738 - 39, the model by Johann Joachim Kaendler, 1738.
In January 1738, the 32 year old master model maker Johann Joachim Kaendler noted in his workshop records: "For the grand service for his High Comital Excellence Herren Von Brühl a soup bowl formed as a shell containing some water apon which swim two swans, as well as two herons and reeds." (from the German in Pietsch, p. 51). Half a year later the service comprised 286 items of flatware, but it is not noted how many of which were plates and how many were dishes. Despite the destruction of Pförten palace at the end of WWII, we can assume that far fewer soup bowls were formed, as fewer are published today. Of the examples in public collections, one soup bowl can be found in the Muzeum Narodowe in Warsaw, and one more in the Städtischen Kunstsammlungen in Augsburg.
Literature
Cf. Pietsch (ed), Schwanenservice. Meissener Porzellan für Heinrich Graf Brühl, Dresden-Leipzig 2000, no. 25.
A further example sold by Lempertz in auction 781 on 3rd December 1999, lot 130.