Lot Essay
A contemporary account written by Johann Georg Keyssler reveals the intended layout and furnishings of the Japanese Palace, and that the second room on the upper floor was to be entirely furnished with seladon coloured porcelain. The Spezifikationen for this room states that the Meissen porcelain was to be of 'celadon colour with white reserves, narrow gold borders and sparse painting'. A bowl with the same ground colour and decoration, also once in the Japanese Palace, is now in the Davids Collection, Copenhagen, and is illustrated by Erik Lassen, 'Davids Samling Meissen Porcelaen' Catalogue (Copenhagen, 1985), pp. 178-179, no. 73. Two covered bowls with the same ground colour (but with indianische Blumen within single gilt band quatrefoil cartouches), also formerly in the Japanese Palace, were sold in our Geneva Rooms on 11th May 1987, lots 153 and 154, and another on 28th March 1977, lot 39.
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