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Lot Essay
The Reepmakers were an extremely eminent Rotterdam family. Either Adriaan Willemszoon Reepmaker or his son Jacob Adrianzoon Reepmaker are contenders for having either commissioned or purchased the service. Each was Mayor (Burgemeester) of Rotterdam; Adriaan in 1769, '70, '74 and '76. He lived until 1780, the approximate date for the manufacture of the service, and so may have ordered it. Jacob was Mayor in 1787 and in addition held a variety of prominent state and ceremonial positions throughout his life (see Christie's Amsterdam sale catalogue, 12 May 1992, lot 242, for a more extensive list of his titles). Either way, the service then remained in possession of their descendants until 1992, when it was sold.
Such very extensive ornithological services are extremely rare. The paintings of groups of birds were copied from freely circulating contemporary engravings, or books of engravings, which would have been purchased by the Meissen factory for just such a purpose. The decorators worked directly from these, while adding touches of their own, re-arranging the birds into different compositions, improvising and varying the colours and inventing and adapting background landscapes. Some of the paintings seem to have been drawn from the 'Neu-vollständiges Reiss-Buch' by Johann Leonhard Buggels, published in Nuremberg in 1700, in particular, the paintings of doves. Another source which was most definitely used was Elzear Albin's 'A Natural History of Birds', which had been published 1731-38; in three volumes, it is thought that the factory decorators only used Volume I, which may have been the only volume owned by the factory. Other sources included the engravings of Wenceslaus Hollar and Francis Barlow, which were widely copied throughout Europe.
The work of differing artist's hands is detectable in the treatment of the decoration, with two main styles predominating. The first painting style, that which is applied to the majority of the service, takes a brightly-coloured approach. A preference is shown for painting exotic birds, but even the domestic fowl are treated in a bold palette. There is a reliance on colour and line to give form.
The second style is applied to a minority of the pieces. It shows a preference for slightly muted colours and soft, painterly brush-strokes to produce modelling of the feathers and birds. The landscapes have delicate long-distance vistas, sometimes including small buildings, and wispy, elegant trees and foliage, The composition and treatment of the vignettes is very strongly reminiscent of similar decoration at Sèvres.
The first style may represent a 'school' of painting at Meissen which may be seen in the work of Carl Gottlob (or Albrecht) Albert (1728-1772) who worked at Meissen before taking up a position at the Fürstenberg factory. His style of painting, which has been firmly identified on Fürstenberg porcelain, can be directly compared to some of the painting on this service, but as he was not working at the factory at the time, we can only assume that there were other painter's working in a closely similar style.
Some of the painting, even if only making deductions on the basis of chronology, must be attributed to Samuel Wilhelm Mann (1726-1799), called 'Vögel-Mahler 1. Classe' in the factory records of 1774. In 1798 he was briefly the only bird-painter recorded at the factory (einziger Vogelmaler der Manufacture) and he was elsewhere commended in the records for his painting of other subjects, including animals and flowers.
Such very extensive ornithological services are extremely rare. The paintings of groups of birds were copied from freely circulating contemporary engravings, or books of engravings, which would have been purchased by the Meissen factory for just such a purpose. The decorators worked directly from these, while adding touches of their own, re-arranging the birds into different compositions, improvising and varying the colours and inventing and adapting background landscapes. Some of the paintings seem to have been drawn from the 'Neu-vollständiges Reiss-Buch' by Johann Leonhard Buggels, published in Nuremberg in 1700, in particular, the paintings of doves. Another source which was most definitely used was Elzear Albin's 'A Natural History of Birds', which had been published 1731-38; in three volumes, it is thought that the factory decorators only used Volume I, which may have been the only volume owned by the factory. Other sources included the engravings of Wenceslaus Hollar and Francis Barlow, which were widely copied throughout Europe.
The work of differing artist's hands is detectable in the treatment of the decoration, with two main styles predominating. The first painting style, that which is applied to the majority of the service, takes a brightly-coloured approach. A preference is shown for painting exotic birds, but even the domestic fowl are treated in a bold palette. There is a reliance on colour and line to give form.
The second style is applied to a minority of the pieces. It shows a preference for slightly muted colours and soft, painterly brush-strokes to produce modelling of the feathers and birds. The landscapes have delicate long-distance vistas, sometimes including small buildings, and wispy, elegant trees and foliage, The composition and treatment of the vignettes is very strongly reminiscent of similar decoration at Sèvres.
The first style may represent a 'school' of painting at Meissen which may be seen in the work of Carl Gottlob (or Albrecht) Albert (1728-1772) who worked at Meissen before taking up a position at the Fürstenberg factory. His style of painting, which has been firmly identified on Fürstenberg porcelain, can be directly compared to some of the painting on this service, but as he was not working at the factory at the time, we can only assume that there were other painter's working in a closely similar style.
Some of the painting, even if only making deductions on the basis of chronology, must be attributed to Samuel Wilhelm Mann (1726-1799), called 'Vögel-Mahler 1. Classe' in the factory records of 1774. In 1798 he was briefly the only bird-painter recorded at the factory (einziger Vogelmaler der Manufacture) and he was elsewhere commended in the records for his painting of other subjects, including animals and flowers.