The inventarium über das Palais zu Alt-Dresden Anno 1721 does not include any polished stoneware pieces which would appear precisely to correspond to the present lot. The black lacquer example of this model, Böttger Steinzeug: Böttgerporzellan, pl. 20, Japanische Palais no. 28 is clearly listed as one of a pair and is described as "breitgedruckte mit belegten...Blumen 2 Lowenköpffen und Blättern...11 1/2 Zoll. No breitgedruckte bottles are listed among the Braun Sächss: Porcelain (i.e. the unlacquered redwares). However the present lot corresponds in its general dimensions and in the details of the handles, applied flowers and other relief decoration. Only the decoration and height of the foot is different.
The glaze and cold gilt decoration on the lacquered example tends somewhat to submerge the finely cut detail of the relief decoration so clearly evident on the present bottle. The careful balance struck between the polished surface and the biscuit relief is an artistic and technical triumph. The skill and control demanded of the polisher is emphasised both by the delightful shells above the lion's mask handles and by the loss of the small pearls below the upper border which have inadvertently been polished away. The black glaze, used inside, which has filled a firecrack in the lower frieze may have been used simply to make the piece watertight

This, probably the most splendid example of polished Böttger stoneware ever to appear in our Rooms, displays to perfection the remarkable marriage between the skill of Johann Jakob Irminger, the court silversmith, Böttger the arcanist and the Bohemian glass polishers who together conceived and produced this piece