Lot Essay
The extraordinary form of this teapot appears to be unrecorded, but was presumably based on the Chinese Kangxi original of the same form in Augustus The Strong's collection, see Ingelore Menzhausen, Porzellansammlung im Zwinger (Dresden, 1986), pp. 20-21. It has been suggested that the cover once had an additional mount which is now lacking. This would explain the unsatisfactory fit, and the overall shape of the teapot would also be enhanced if the cover sat in a slightly more elevated position.
Meissen employed glass cutters and polishers from Bohemia to work on its stoneware vessels, principally from 1710-12. Adam Heinrich Blumenthal went to Bohemia to recruit craftsmen, and in February 1710 engaged the polisher Samuel Hölzel, his two sons and 27 other glass engravers and polishers. By the time Böttger's grinding mill at Weisseritz was completed in 1713 interest in stoneware was waning as porcelain had become more sought after. Consequently by 1712 only four glass workers remained at Meissen. For another teapot engraved with similar decoration in the style of Jean Bérains, see Willi Goder et al., Johann Friedrich Böttger (Leipzig, 1982), no. 86.
Meissen employed glass cutters and polishers from Bohemia to work on its stoneware vessels, principally from 1710-12. Adam Heinrich Blumenthal went to Bohemia to recruit craftsmen, and in February 1710 engaged the polisher Samuel Hölzel, his two sons and 27 other glass engravers and polishers. By the time Böttger's grinding mill at Weisseritz was completed in 1713 interest in stoneware was waning as porcelain had become more sought after. Consequently by 1712 only four glass workers remained at Meissen. For another teapot engraved with similar decoration in the style of Jean Bérains, see Willi Goder et al., Johann Friedrich Böttger (Leipzig, 1982), no. 86.