A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-1
A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-2
A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-3
A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-4
A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-5
A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-6
A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-7
A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-1A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-2A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-3A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-4A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-5A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-6A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase - image-7

Lot 855 Dα

A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase

Auction 1086 - overview Cologne
19.05.2017, 17:00 - Selected Works of Art
Estimate: 15.000 € - 20.000 €
Result: 42.160 € (incl. premium)

A Meissen porcelain "schneeballen" vase

A large baluster-form vase and cover. Fired in three pieces, screw-mounted, and cemented together. Encrusted throughout with white snowball flowers and protruding umbels. Entwined with trailing vines populated by a myriad of lively exotic and continental birds, including golden orioles, bullfinches, goldfinches, and linnets with naturalistic plumage, as well as a fancifully coloured cockatoo. The central nodus of openwork trellis design enclosing a canary bird. Blue crossed swords mark, model no. 2773. A crack to the base, a loss to one of the vines, the beak of the oriole broken, chips, the birds on the lid lost and with an older, crumbling restoration. H ca. 77.2 cm (with cover).
Late 19th C.

Johann Joachim Kaendler designed this vase form together with Friedrich Eberlein in 1742, and soon after began producing versions with “schneeballen” decor. In this monumental design, the intricate snowball flower incrustation is combined with a structurally challenging openwork element to the centre, demonstrating the manufactory's technical and aesthetic prowess. Frederick II of Prussia began to order pieces with snowball decor for Potsdam in 1745, including a three-part chimneypiece garniture with an identical birdcage vase to the centre. The mixture of sumptuousness and naturalism embodied in this decor appealed to the Prussian King's eye, but also to the opulent tastes of the 19th century, and thus these kinds of vases continued to be produced for individual commissions 100 years later.

Literature

A vase of this type illus.: Wittwer, in: Keramos, 208 / April 2010, p. 39.