CIRCA 1715

The present vase, from the important King Umberto II of Italy sale at Christie’s Geneva in 1968, was probably one of the items given in 1725 by Augustus ‘the Strong’, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony, to his friend Vittorio Amadeo II, King of Sardinia, in Turin. The 1725 gift is exceptional and important as it was one of the earliest and most prestigious diplomatic gifts to include Meissen porcelain.¹ The Meissen porcelain in the gift included newer pieces which had been made shortly before the gift took place (such as the famous armorial tea and chocolate-service painted by J.G. Höroldt),² and older pieces, including Böttger-period stoneware and Böttger-period porcelain, such as this type of vase.

The present vase was designed by the Court Silversmith, Johann Jakob Irminger (1635?-1724), who had been expressly asked by Augustus the Strong to contribute designs for Meissen wares and to oversee them.³ Claudia Banz notes that Irminger developed the applied three-dimensional flowering branches (‘Irmingersche Belege’) from Japanese originals.⁴ The lower part and foot of the present vase have much in common with the design of the monumental vase which was worked on together by Irminger and the French Interior Designer, Raymond de Leplat,⁵ which was originally intended for Louis XIV of France.⁶ After delays and technical problems, in the end the garniture was never sent to France. Once fired successfully, and without the French Regent’s coat of arms on the central vase, instead the garniture was transferred to Augustus’s collection, where it remained until it was selected for the gift to the King of Sardinia in 1725.⁷

Porcelain which was already in the Royal collection was selected for the gift, along with newer porcelain from the factory. Annotations to the 1721 inventory of the Japanese Palace in Dresden record which pieces in the palace were chosen for the gift to the King of Sardinia.⁸ The preceding lot (lot 22) in King Umberto II’s 1968 Geneva sale, which was a Böttger white porcelain vase of very similar type to the present vase, has been identified as part of the 1725 gift from Augustus to the King of Sardinia. This vase appears to match number 17 in the Japanese Palace inventory,⁹ which is described as a Becher, and the cover is described as worauff ein codronirtes Knöpffgen (with a gadrooned knop finial).

It is not clear if the present lot is definitely one of the items annotated as being gifted to the King of Sardinia, but it could very possibly be Japanese Palace number 22. This entry has only a scant description unfortunately, but the dimensions are almost identical to the present vase. The entry for number 22 reads: Ein stuck do. 11. Z. hoch. Und 5 1⁄2 Z. in diam. (one piece ditto 11 Zoll high and 5 1⁄2 Zoll in diameter).¹⁰ Although the form of number 22 is not described, it follows sequentially in a list of related pieces with masks alternating with foliage, and all with covers. It was presumably a Pocal as the previous entry also begins with 2. Stk. do. (two pieces ditto) and these in turn follow number 20 which is described as a Pocal and cover.¹¹ The cover of number 20 is described as having a gadrooned knop finial, and the cover of number 17 (the vase now thought to be lot 22 in the King Umberto II 1968 Geneva sale) is described in exactly the same way. This description is equally applicable to the cover of the present lot. There are differences in the decoration of numbers 20 and 21, but the unifying feature of the three sequential entries is their type and their Pocal form with covers.¹²

As it is not described, it is not clear if number 22 had a cover like 21 (with vine leaves) or like 20 (with gadrooning, similar to the present lot). Given that the three entries are sequential, it is equally possible that the cover of number 22 could be the same form as either entry 20 or entry 21. The accuracy of the inventory descriptions is not sufficient to be sure, but as the height and diameter correspond to the present vase, it seems very probable that number 22, which was sent as a gift to the King of Sardinia, is the present lot.

Ingelore Menzhausen notes that the ‘Johanneum numbers’ in schwarzer Farbe (black enamel) were erased from pieces which were destined for Turin.¹³ Typically the palace inventory numbers were wheel-engraved, and their removal leaves a ground-out area (see the underside and cover interior of lot 101 in this sale), but the narrow shape of the steeply-concave hollow foot of the present vase, and of the vase which preceded it in the King Umberto II 1968 Geneva sale, would have made it difficult to engrave an inventory number, so the numbers must indeed have been painted. Not all pieces in the 1725 gift were removed from the Japanese Palace. Some, like the famous armorial service mentioned above (and note 2) were specifically made for the gift, or they had been very recently made by the factory. The shipping list for the items which were sent to Turin survives, and it shows additional objects which were added to the Japanese Palace selection. It also illustrates that it was larger and more prestigious than most diplomatic gifts, consisting of about 300 individual items which had to be shipped in twelves crates. The shipment included five 7-vase garnitures, nine boxed coffee, tea and chocolate-services, two small table-services, other wares, chamber-pots and prize horses.¹⁴

1. For a discussion of the gift, see Julia Weber, “‘…that other nations must be amazed by it…’ Saxon Porcelain in European Diplomacy” in Ulrich Pietsch and Claudia Banz (Eds.), Triumph of the Blue Swords, Porzellansammlung, Zwinger, Dresden Exhibition Catalogue, 2010, pp. 152-155. Also see
Cassidy-Geiger [Ed.], Fragile Diplomacy: Meissen Porcelain for European Courts ca. 1710-63, Bard Graduate Center November 2007-February 2008 Exhibition Catalogue, 2007, pp. 14-15 and pp. 208-211; and also see Ingelore Menzhausen, ‘Ein Porzellangeschenk Augusts Der Starken für den König von Sardinien’ in Keramos No. 119, 1988, pp. 99-102.
2. The principal part of this armorial service, which was previously thought to have been lost, was sold from the collection of a ‘Member of the Royal House of Savoy’ by Christie’s, London, on 4 July 2019, lot 104.
3. Irminger was asked by the king in 1710 (and subsequently formally instructed in 1712) to contribute designs for Böttger’s new stoneware. He submitted designs to Meissen in copper or silver, and sometimes oversaw the quality of what was produced, but he rarely visited the factory; see Ulrike Weinhold, ‘“of unusual design” – Johann Jakob Irminger as the Designer of Böttger stoneware’ in Dirk Syndram and Ulrike Weinhold (Eds.), Böttger Stoneware, Johann Friedrich Böttger and Treasury Art, 2009, p. 105. The manufactory inspector, Johann Melchior Steinbrück, complained about Irminger’s absence, and not long after Böttger’s death in 1719, Irminger’s name was deleted from the salary list at the factory.
4. Claudia Banz, ‘Early Meissen Porcelain’ in Ulrich Pietsch and Claudia Banz (Eds.), Triumph of the Blue Swords, Porzellansammlung, Zwinger, Dresden Exhibition Catalogue, 2010, p. 173, Cat. No. 19, which is a vase of very similar form as the present lot which is still in the State Porzellansammlung, Dresden (inv. No. PE 670 a,b).
5. Leplat (1664?-1742) was first employed by Augustus ‘the Strong’ in 1697, and went on to have a very influential role in many of Augustus’s principal building projects, introducing the French style to Dresden and Warsaw. He also acted as his art agent, sourcing works of art for the king (in 1722-23 Leplat travelled in Italy sourcing antique sculptures and painting for Augustus, see Günter Reinheckel, ‘Leplat und Meissen’, in Keramos No. 23, January 1964, p. 21). Leplat’s association with the Meissen manufactory began in 1713 when he collected porcelain on behalf of the duchesse d’Orléans.
6. Work on the commission began in 1715 but was delayed, and after Louis XIV’s death in September 1715 it appears that the recipient of the commission was revised to the Regent of France, the duc d’Orléans. Work was ongoing in 1716 when the overly large central vase with the Orléans coat of arms failed in the kiln (see Pietsch and Banz [Eds.], ibid., 2010, p. 155 and Cassidy-Geiger, ‘Porcelain and Prestige, Princely Gifts and “White Gold” from Meissen’ in Cassidy-Geiger [Ed.], ibid., 2007, p. 15).
7. The main central vase from this garniture was sold by Sotheby’s, London, on 14 July 1998, lot 84. Three vases from this garniture, including the Sotheby’s central vase, are illustrated by Cassidy-Geiger, ‘Princes and Porcelain on the Grand Tour of Italy’ in Cassidy-Geiger (Ed.), ibid., 2007, p. 208. The two vases from the garniture that are still in Turin are illustrated by Andreina Griseri and Giovanni Romano (Eds.), Porcellane e Argenti del Palazzo Reale di Torino, Palazzo Reale Exhibition Catalogue, 1986, pp. 226-228, Cat. No. 65, and also by Claudia Banz, ‘A Passion for Porcelain’ in Ulrich Pietsch and Claudia Banz (Eds.), ibid., 2010, p. 168, Cat. No. 10.
8. The transcription of this inventory (with annotations dating up to 1727) was published by Ingelore Menzhausen, Böttgersteinzeug Böttgerporzellan, 1969, pp. 36-53 (for the white porcelain pieces). As noted by Cassidy-Geiger, the palace ‘was a bit of a waystation or storehouse for porcelain gifts’, see Cassidy-Geiger, ‘Princes and Porcelain on the Grand Tour of Italy’ in Cassidy-Geiger (Ed.), ibid., 2007, p. 242, note. 12.
9. See Ingelore Menzhausen, ibid., 1988, p. 99. Fig. 1.
10. Zoll was a measurement used in Saxony in the 18th century. One Saxon Zoll is the equivalent of 2.35 cm., see Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, ‘Hof-Conditorei and Court Celebrations in 18th Century Dresden’ in The International Ceramics Fair & Seminar, Exhibition catalogue, London, June 2002, p. 24.
11. A vase was sometimes called a Pocal. In the shipping list of items sent to Turin, a garniture of 7 vases is described as containing 3 Pocale with covers and 4 Becher (beaker-vases). See Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, ibid., 2007, p. 328.
12. Number 20 is described as having rose branches alternating with lion masks, and number 21 is described as having angel masks, and the cover is described as being different from 20, with vine leaves.
13. Ingelore Menzhausen, ibid., 1988, pp. 100-101.
14. Documents HStA13458, currently on loan to the Porzellansammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Archives (‘Verschiedene Specificationen und Belege über Zu-und Abgänge 1700-1876’), ‘Nachrichten von den Sächssischen Porcellain so im Monath Septemb: Anno 1725 nach Turin ist geschicket worden.’ A transcription of the full shipping list of what was sent is published by Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, ibid., 2007, pp. 327-331.