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Lot Essay
On 27th October 1806 Napoleon's troops entered Berlin and the Prussian Royal family fled to Königsberg. Napoleon established the Rhenish Confederation of sixteen German member states whose rulers were keen to be associated with his new 'Roman' Empire. Having been granted their sovereignty under the auspices of the new Empire, the princes of these states were encouraged to consolidate against Prussia and ultimately fight alongside Napoleon's forces against the Prussians. In these areas (the south and west), the Empire style flourished and the designs of the inseparable French architects and designers, Charles Percier (1764-1838) and Pierre-François-Léonard Fontaine (1762-1853), were widely adopted. In Berlin, the occupation, which lasted until 1813, was bitterly resented along with the members of the Rhenish Confederation, and here the style was adopted with less vigour. However French rule did have an impact on the Berlin KPM factory, and both KPM and Sèvres began to exchange models and information about colours and techniques. Names of models supplemented with the words nach französischem Porzellan, and französische Sorte, are numerous in the KPM archives, and by 1810 the style had become more accepted, well before it had by other German factories.
The decoration of the present lot owes a heavy debt to the style popularised by Percier and Fontaine's Recueil De Décorations Intérieures, Comprenant tout ce qui a rapport a l'ameublement.. (1812), and the eagle within the laurels1 is almost certainly taken from the ceiling of Napoleon's bedroom at the Palais des Tuileries (pl. LIII). Although not exactly the same, the trophies on the border of the plate also have much in common with those around the room at Château de la Malmaison (pl. LV) which represented des peuples guerriers les plus célèbres du globe.
1. It is possible that Percier and Fontaine derived this eagle from the one within a wreath of oak leaves originally from Trajan's Forum in Rome (now in the entrance of SS. Apostoli). During his stay in Rome in 1786-89, Percier had a daily ritual of drawing details of ornament and taking measurements of a large number of monuments with Drouais, David's favourite pupil. This even included measuring Trajan's column, a task which had defeated Piranesi.
The decoration of the present lot owes a heavy debt to the style popularised by Percier and Fontaine's Recueil De Décorations Intérieures, Comprenant tout ce qui a rapport a l'ameublement.. (1812), and the eagle within the laurels1 is almost certainly taken from the ceiling of Napoleon's bedroom at the Palais des Tuileries (pl. LIII). Although not exactly the same, the trophies on the border of the plate also have much in common with those around the room at Château de la Malmaison (pl. LV) which represented des peuples guerriers les plus célèbres du globe.
1. It is possible that Percier and Fontaine derived this eagle from the one within a wreath of oak leaves originally from Trajan's Forum in Rome (now in the entrance of SS. Apostoli). During his stay in Rome in 1786-89, Percier had a daily ritual of drawing details of ornament and taking measurements of a large number of monuments with Drouais, David's favourite pupil. This even included measuring Trajan's column, a task which had defeated Piranesi.