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Lot Essay
The present tureens have much in common with the service which became known as the ‘Christie Miller Service’(1). Although the decoration is related, and of comparable quality, the present tureens are different and clearly distinct from the Christie Miller Service. The early provenance of the Christie Miller service still remains obscure, but the scholar Ulrich Pietsch has suggested that the sheer quality of the decoration points to it being a gift from Augustus III of Saxony to the French Court (the decoration is executed by the leading artists at Meissen (Christian Friedrich Herold, George Heintze and Bonaventura Gottlieb Häuer). This is extremely probable, given that his daughter Josepha married the Dauphin of France in 1747. The quality of the present tureens is comparable, and given that they bear dolphins above the cartouches, a feature which is completely atypical for Meissen, it is suggestive of them being made for the Dauphin of France, or a senior member of the French Court.
The scene with a campfire may partially derive from Charles Nicolas Cochin’s engraving after Antoine Watteau’s painting Camp Volant(2). Elements on the ground near the fire appear to be similar to those in the engraving, although the majority of the details have been changed. A horseman riding away from the viewer in one of the small purpurmalerei vignettes to one cover may derive from the central equestrian figure in Jacques Philippe Le Bas’s engraving after Charles Parrocel’s 1737 painting, Détachment de Cavalerie(3). Other prints by Le Bas after Parrocel were used (in combination with works by other engravers) as inspiration for the decoration of the Christie Miller service. A single tureen, cover and stand with related (but less fine) decoration was sold from the Robert Vater Collection by Christie’s, London, on 16 December 2021, lot 140.
1. Samuel Christie-Miller reputedly bought the service in Paris from a member of the House of Orléans, circa 1840. Seventy-two pieces appeared on the open market in Sotheby’s, London, in 1970, sold from the Estate of the late S.R. Christie-Miller. Recently, a plate from the service was sold by Christie’s, London from the Robert Vater Collection on 16 December 2021, lot 138.
2. See Claudia Bodinek, Raffinesse im Akkord, Dresden, 2018, Vol. 2, p. 513, no. 384.
3. See Claudia Bodinek, ibid., Dresden, 2018, Vol. 2, p. 252, no. 198.
The scene with a campfire may partially derive from Charles Nicolas Cochin’s engraving after Antoine Watteau’s painting Camp Volant(2). Elements on the ground near the fire appear to be similar to those in the engraving, although the majority of the details have been changed. A horseman riding away from the viewer in one of the small purpurmalerei vignettes to one cover may derive from the central equestrian figure in Jacques Philippe Le Bas’s engraving after Charles Parrocel’s 1737 painting, Détachment de Cavalerie(3). Other prints by Le Bas after Parrocel were used (in combination with works by other engravers) as inspiration for the decoration of the Christie Miller service. A single tureen, cover and stand with related (but less fine) decoration was sold from the Robert Vater Collection by Christie’s, London, on 16 December 2021, lot 140.
1. Samuel Christie-Miller reputedly bought the service in Paris from a member of the House of Orléans, circa 1840. Seventy-two pieces appeared on the open market in Sotheby’s, London, in 1970, sold from the Estate of the late S.R. Christie-Miller. Recently, a plate from the service was sold by Christie’s, London from the Robert Vater Collection on 16 December 2021, lot 138.
2. See Claudia Bodinek, Raffinesse im Akkord, Dresden, 2018, Vol. 2, p. 513, no. 384.
3. See Claudia Bodinek, ibid., Dresden, 2018, Vol. 2, p. 252, no. 198.