CIRCA 1742, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK, PRESSNUMMER 22

Details

A MEISSEN OCTAGONAL PLATE FROM THE CHRISTIE-MILLER SERVICE
CIRCA 1742, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK, PRESSNUMMER 22
The centre painted with a Venetian scene after Melchior Küsel, the foreground with three merchants at discussion on a quayside before palaces, further merchants on a lower quay before boats and ships within a black line octagonal reserve, the well with gilt diaper-pattern reserved with four quatrefoil panels painted in puce camaïeu with landscapes and a harbour scene within a border painted with two landscapes, a Venetian harbour scene and figures on a terrace before buildings and a distant mountainous landscape within black and gilt line quatrefoil cartouches on a ground of gilt ombriete foliage scrolls, shells and lines, gilt line rim (slight wear to well in five places)
9½ in. (24 cm.) wide

Provenance

The late S.R. Christie-Miller, sale Sotheby's London, 7th July 1970, lot 12 (part).
With A. Torre, from whom it was acquired in 1970.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price plus buyer's premium.

Lot Essay

The engravings by Melchior Küsel for Verschiedene ansichte in Italien, Cärnthen und Friul, published by Johann Wilhelm Bauer in Augsburg in 1679, were used as a graphic source for this service. The early provenance of this service still remains obscure; until the appearance of 72 pieces from the Estate of the late S.R. Christie-Miller at Sotheby's in 1970, only one piece of the service, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, had been known and published.

See the dish sold in these Rooms on 7th July 2003, lot 100. Other octagonal dishes from the service were sold in our Geneva Rooms on 13th November 1989, lots 155 and 156, and on 8th May 1989, lot 103. Three, sold by Sotheby's on 7th July 1970, lots 1, 20 and 43, are now in the Pflueger Collection, New York, and are illustrated in the catalogue by Hugo Morley-Fletcher, 'Early European Porcelain & Faience as collected by Kiyi and Edward Pflueger' (London, 1993), pp. 42-45.

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