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Lot Essay
This plate is from a large service produced between 1735 and 1738 for Graf Alexander Joseph von Sulkowski (1695-1762). Sulkowski was one of Augustus III's Cabinet Ministers, and among other things supervised the completion of the Japanese Palace and the deliveries of porcelain to the Palace. In 1733 he was created a Count by the Holy Roman Emperor Karl VI, and he was put in command of Augustus's troops in Poland from 1735, and of the troops fighting the Turks in 1737. In 1738 he was dismissed and returned to his estate in Poland. At the time of commission, the Sulkowski Service was the first privately commissioned armorial service of large size which was designed to order.
The Sulkowski arms are on the left of the plate, and the arms on the right are those of his wife, Marie Anna Franziska von Stain zu Jettingen (1712-1741), whom he married in 1738. The basket-weave 'Sulkowski' ozier borders were in fact introduced at Meissen in 1732. See Julius Lessing, 'Das Porzellangeschirr Sulkowski' Kunstgewerbeblatt, Vol. 4 (Leipzig, 1888), pp. 43-8, where this service was first discussed. Shortly after this article was published the majority of the service was sold. The remaining pieces were kept by the family in Poland until the 1960s when they were sold by Sotheby's London on 23rd May 1967, lots 29-50. For a large dish from this service now in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, see D. Hoffmeister, Meissener Porzellan Des 18.Jahrhunderts, Katalog Der Sammlung Hoffmeister (Hamburg, 1999), pp. 526-7, no. 345 and pp. 594-5, no. 16, for a discussion of the service. Three pieces from this service are illustrated by Rainer Rückert, Meissner Porzellan (Munich, 1966); a plate, fig. 490, a candelabrum, pl. 489 and a salt, pl. 487.
The Sulkowski arms are on the left of the plate, and the arms on the right are those of his wife, Marie Anna Franziska von Stain zu Jettingen (1712-1741), whom he married in 1738. The basket-weave 'Sulkowski' ozier borders were in fact introduced at Meissen in 1732. See Julius Lessing, 'Das Porzellangeschirr Sulkowski' Kunstgewerbeblatt, Vol. 4 (Leipzig, 1888), pp. 43-8, where this service was first discussed. Shortly after this article was published the majority of the service was sold. The remaining pieces were kept by the family in Poland until the 1960s when they were sold by Sotheby's London on 23rd May 1967, lots 29-50. For a large dish from this service now in the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg, see D. Hoffmeister, Meissener Porzellan Des 18.Jahrhunderts, Katalog Der Sammlung Hoffmeister (Hamburg, 1999), pp. 526-7, no. 345 and pp. 594-5, no. 16, for a discussion of the service. Three pieces from this service are illustrated by Rainer Rückert, Meissner Porzellan (Munich, 1966); a plate, fig. 490, a candelabrum, pl. 489 and a salt, pl. 487.