About the Work

The porcelain of this rare Meissen travelling service in its original leather case was produced around 1729/30 and decorated shortly thereafter in the early 1730s. The decoration combines “Indian” flowers with insects and birds in the Kakiemon style, all set against a distinctive sea-green ground. This ground colour was first successfully employed at Meissen by Johann Gregorius Höroldt on 27 July 1726, marking an important milestone for the decoration of fully painted porcelain. The sea-green tone of the present service tends subtly towards yellow, reflecting the experimental variety of ground colours at Meissen during these years.

The service comprises six cups and saucers, a pear-shaped coffee pot, a globular teapot with quatrefoil stand, a bowl, a covered sugar box, a covered tea caddy and six silver-gilt spoons, all preserved in their original fitted travelling case (49.5 × 30 × 19 cm). Most pieces bear the underglaze-blue crossed swords mark, while four of the cups display the caduceus mark reintroduced in 1729 in connection with the Hoym/Lemaire affair. The tea caddy remains unmarked.

Travelling services preserved in their original cases are of exceptional rarity. The protective fitted compartments frequently ensured good preservation, while the unity of service and case retains the representative splendour for which such ensembles were conceived within eighteenth-century court culture. Early complete examples, such as the present one, are therefore particularly prized. Comparable sea-green services in original cases are not known, underscoring the rarity and importance of this ensemble.

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Literature

Boltz, Claus: „Eisbären und Polarfüchse / 6 Kästen sächsisches Porzellan.“, In Keramos 148 / 1995 p. 23

Langeloh, Elfriede: 100 Jahre. Porzellane und Fayencen des 18. Jahrhunderts. 1919–2019. Weinheim 2019 pp. 60–103 nos. 1–4