Lot Essay
Probably commissioned by the Prussian East India Company as a gift for King Frederick II, who founded the Company in 1750. By 1756 it had been disbanded, as a result of the Seven Year's War. Only seven Prussian ships are recorded at Canton between 1753 and 1791.
There was relatively little armorial made for the German market, nearly all of it for princely families. Apparently the ship carrying this service home from China, the Prinz von Preussen, ran aground in the East Friesan islands, but was refloated, and the service made it back to Emden, though partly damaged. One Hohenzollern descendant, Princess Hermine, wrote in her 1928 memoirs An Empress in Exile: My Days in Doorn, of pieces of the service displayed in the smoking room of the castle. See C. Le Corbeiller, op. cit., pp. 80-83
There was relatively little armorial made for the German market, nearly all of it for princely families. Apparently the ship carrying this service home from China, the Prinz von Preussen, ran aground in the East Friesan islands, but was refloated, and the service made it back to Emden, though partly damaged. One Hohenzollern descendant, Princess Hermine, wrote in her 1928 memoirs An Empress in Exile: My Days in Doorn, of pieces of the service displayed in the smoking room of the castle. See C. Le Corbeiller, op. cit., pp. 80-83