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Lot Essay
These dishes and stands, with their distinctive lioness supports, are closely related to those from the 'Prussian Service', which was commissioned by King William III from the Royal Berlin manufactory circa 1817-19 as a gift to Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington (d. 1852) for Apsley House, London. Indeed, the etched gilt borders to the dishes closely resemble those of the Duke's service, and the stands, of a form designed at Berlin for elaborate tureens, are the same model as those used for the Duke's tureen-stands. See W. and I. Baer, The Prussian Service, The Duke of Wellington's Berlin Dinner-Service, Exhibition Catalogue, 1988, p. 99, pl. 9, for these stands.
Although the patterns of the gilt foliate scroll borders on the dishes vary slightly, the gilding pattern of the arabesques within which the landscapes are reserved is identical. One must therefore consider them as initially meat platters from the same Jagd or hunting service, mounted slightly later as a pair of center dishes and not as platters from two different services as described in the 1996 sale catalogue.
Although the patterns of the gilt foliate scroll borders on the dishes vary slightly, the gilding pattern of the arabesques within which the landscapes are reserved is identical. One must therefore consider them as initially meat platters from the same Jagd or hunting service, mounted slightly later as a pair of center dishes and not as platters from two different services as described in the 1996 sale catalogue.