1757-1760, DESIGNED UNDER THE DIRECTION OF FREDERICK THE GREAT

The present vase, lacking its original cover, is related to a set of similar vases and covers molded with masks made to be placed in niches along the garden facing the façade of Sans Souci, a pleasure palace built by Frederick the Great between 1745 and 1747. Frederick's intense fervor for porcelain concretized itself at home in the many porcelain pieces decorating his palace and extended itself throughout Europe in the growing exchange of diplomatic gifts. This virtuosic vase of impressive scale is inherently more than a royal commission with Frederick's personal proximity to the medium itself. Possibly installed in a similar fashion to the aforementioned mask-flanked vases, the decoration of the vase when placed in situ would mirror and replicate the flowering garden, creating a conversation specifically facilitated by porcelain. See Samuel Wittwer, 'hat der König von Preussen die Schleunige Verferttigung verschiedener Bestellungen ernstlich begehret?- Friedrich der Grosse und das Meissener Porzellan, Keramos, 208/2010, pp. 17-80