Lot Essay
This tazza is part of a Royal service commissioned by Wilhelm I, Elector of Hesse-Kassel (reigned 1785-1821). Hesse-Kassel, a West-German principality, was raised to the status of an electorate in 1803. Following its occupation by Napoleon in 1807, it became part of the Kingdom of Westphalia. Hesse-Kassel regained its independence under Wilhelm I in 1815. Local silversmiths Heinrich Wilhelm Kompff, Johannes Ostheim and C. H. Krdell made the extensive Kurfrsten-Service (or court-service) in 1806 and 1817, produced in an austere Empire style and engraved with the initials WK beneath a crown. This tazza is one of four produced by Kompff, two of which are in the collection of Museum Scholss Fasanerie, and are illustrated in R. Neuhaus and E. Schmidberger, Kasseler Silber, 1998, pp. 186-93.