PAINTED BY HERMANN LOOSCHEN, IRON RED ORB AND BLUE SCEPTRE MARKS, IMPRESSED F AND O, LAST QUARTER 19TH CENTURY

The Berlin Konigliche Porzellan Manufaktur (KPM) was founded in the first half of the 18th century and after financial difficulties was taken over by Frederick the Great in 1763. Royal participation in the factory continued with particular interest being shown by Fredrick Wilhelm III (1777-1840) whose royal patronage, together with growing demand from an increasingly wealthy middle class, provided it with a solid bass in the early 19th century. The production of decorated porcelain plaques had already begun in the latter part of the 18th century but was to flourish from the 1840s to the end of the century. From about 1810 many well-known artists, trained at the Berlin Academy, were employed to copy old masters as well as produce original works for transferal porcelain. At first this decoration was chiefly applied to decorative vases and display cups, but it was soon realized that a porcelain plaque could be used just like a canvas, while exploiting the luminosity of the porcelain body, and from the mid-1840s KPM manufactured and sold increasing quantities.