MAKER'S MARK OF ABRAHAM IV DRENTWETT, AUGSBURG, 1763-1765

The arms are those of the Elector Max III Joseph of Bavaria (1727-1777) who succeeded his father Karl Albrecht as Elector in 1745. The last Wittelsbach of the Bavarian branch, he has been described as "humanitarian, enlightened Absolutism itself". (Angelicka von Schuckman, The Wittelsbach as Patrons of the Arts, 1730-1780, Apollo, November 1969, p. 408). He founded by electorial decree the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and the Academy of Painting and Sculpture. He reformed the taxation and legal systems, introduced compulsory education and guaranteed freedom of religion to his Protestant subjects. In 1747, he founded the porcelain factory that eventually moved to Nymphenburg. He died of smallpox at the end of 1777 and was succeeded by the Elector Palatine Karl Theodore, who is reported to have said on hearing the news of his cousin's death "no more good times for me now".

This second-course dish matches six (32 cm. diam.) by Drentwett, similarly engraved, in the Residenz Museum, Munich (see H. Seling, Die Kunst der Augsburger Goldschmiede, 1529-1868, Munich, 1980, vol. III, no. 2329i).