The present lot is arguably one of the earliest European tea-caddies extant. Another with similar decoration but hexagonal, and then still in Dresden is illustrated in Ernst Zimmermann, die Erfindung und fruhzeit des Meissner Porzellans, Leipzig, 1908, pp. 133/4, fig. 4. The same tea-caddy is illustrated by Emil Hannover, Pottery and Porcelain, vo. III, pp. 40/41, fig. 52 while fig. 53 illustrates a rectangular coffee-pot and cover in similar technique in the Kunstindustriemuseum, Copenhagen

The technique used to decorated these three pieces which was derived from the skills built up by the Bohemian glass engravers combined wheel-engraving and polishing, the wheel engraved trellis enclosing polished recesses. This form of decoration was described at the time as gemuschelt.

This tea-caddy would seem to correspond to the example recorded in the list of 'Formen des Böttgersteinzeugs in Jahre 1711, published by Claus Boltz in Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz no. 96, 1982 under Form 33 no. 10 I streifficht gescnitten und klein gemuschelt 4 Eckichte thee Buchse (gescnitten und poliert)

Böttger was quite clearly fascinated by the potential from polishing and engraving offered by his stoneware. According to Ernst Hannover, ibid., p. 41 there were six glass cutters employed in Dresden, three at Meissen itself with a further ten in Kuckau in Bohemia

Their skill is seen at its best in the engraving and polishing of the present lot