A BÖTTGER BLACK GLAZED RED STONEWARE SMALL BOWL

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The decoration of the following six lots reflects the impact which Japanese and Chinese lacquer had on European taste at the end of the 17th century and early 18th century. Although a connection with lacquer is not immediately apparent for all six lots, the shiny black ground, which was new to Europe, was developed at Meissen as a response to the vogue for lacquer, and in particular, Japanese lacquer. Black was held in high regard by the Japanese, as noted by Simon de Vries in his 17th century work about Japan. Black was used for the household wares of 'great and distinguished people', and it commanded 'the highest esteem'.1 In the 1719 inventory of the factory, black-glazed pieces decorated in cold colours were referred to as 'schwartz laquirt' ('black lacquered'). The relationship between porcelain and lacquer was not new in Asia2, but once planted in Europe, the idea grew to produce different and innovative decorative effects at Meissen. The six black-glazed lots in this sale illustrate the diversity that Böttger achieved in the first few years of his factory's production. Lot 1 is very close to the decoration found on lacquer furniture, and is almost certainly executed by Martin Schnell, the Court lacquerer in Dresden. But the other lots are more experimental in their decoration, and are all slightly different. The factory administrator, Johann Melchior Steinbrück commented on the black-glazed pieces as being innovative: 'In addition, he (Böttger) had a part of the red wares coated with black glaze, producing a wholly new style of porcelain, the likes of which no one in Asia has ever seen. Further, he had some of these pieces engraved, so that one sees the red body against the black, and some were also lacquered with gold and colours'.3 Although they share the same form, the two vases (lots 3 and 4) are quite different. The surface of the glaze of lot 4 has a colourful iridescence, rather like that found on the surface of oil. The surface of lot 3 is a more consistent 'mirror black'. The underside of the foot of lot 3 has a thin layer of gilding (as does lot 1), which the other vase (lot 4) does not have. The teapot (lot 6) is a successful fusion of the black ground with European baroque decoration as popularised by Daniel Marot. The design is cut through the glaze to reveal the red stoneware below (which echoes Chinese Coromandel lacquer, in which 'the designs were cut out shallowly into a dark dark-lacquered background').4 Böttger's early factory produced wares for sale with an astonishing speed, but it also extraordinary how quickly the factory adapted the use of black and other decorative elements found on Asian imports into its repertoire. Red stoneware and black-glazed red stoneware were first offered for sale at the Easter Fair (Ostermesse) at Leipzig in 1710. The Leipzig Gazette (Leipziger Zeitung) records the types of vessels offered for sale: '..one had at the same time these red vessels, which were lacquered like the most beautiful Japanese products, and gold, silver and colours were applied, and the piece was fired, so that neither hot water nor anything else could penetrate'. It also noted that 'the same pieces, with the dark glaze, are artfully engraved, to show the red body underneath'.5 In an inventory of the pieces at Meissen in August 1711, a hundred black-glazed items were listed. By 1719, in the inventory of the stoneware pieces still left in the workrooms at Meissen, there were nearly two thousand black-glazed pieces which were described as either 'schwarz glassurt' or 'schwartz glassirt' ('black-glazed'), and there was a group of about thirty pieces described as 'schwartz laquirt', indicating black-glazed pieces decorated in unfired colours.6 Japanese and European Lacquer: As with the beguiling translucency of 'true' hard-paste porcelain made in China and Japan, the appeal of lacquer was as much for the quality and sheen of its dark surface as it was for the exotic designs on it; as for some time Europeans did not know how either porcelain or lacquer were made, adding to their mystique and exotic quality, and enhancing the regard in which they were held. By the end of the 16th century, Portuguese merchants were revolutionising the relationship between the East and the West. Japanese lacquer was being shipped directly to Europe, mainly in the form of pieces of furniture which had been derived from European types; coffers with domed lids, cupboards and chests. This process was continued and expanded by the Dutch East India Company, which established itself on the artificial fan-shaped island of Deshima (connected by a small stone bridge to the bay of Nagasaki).7 As the fashions of the 17th century evolved, coveted pieces of porcelain or lacquer were brought out of Kunstkammern and openly displayed in the interior. Small lacquer pieces were sometimes incorporated in the symmetrical arrangements of porcelain on top of cabinets, over doors and on overmantels; or the porcelain was displayed on lacquered brackets. This visual vocabulary of this fashion was formulated and propagated by the designs of Daniel Marot and his followers such as Paul Decker. It was also spread from Holland by virtue of the fact that the princes and aristocrats of Europe, or their agents, came to buy 'Indian' curiosities there. Lacquer was produced in a number of Asian countries, but Japanese lacquer was widely regarded as the finest. It was also expensive. Lacquer chests or screens were frequently cut up in order to transform them into wall panels or other decorative devices more appropriate for the European interior. As this was a prohibitively expensive method of furnishing, a large number of lacquering workshops sprang up all over Europe producing 'japanned' furniture and other decorative elements which imitated Japanese and Chinese lacquer. Some interiors were furnished with a combination of Oriental lacquer and European imitation lacquer. European and Indian lacquers were made from gum-lac or shell-lac (imported from India), which was derived from the gum deposited on trees by an insect, Coccus lacca. This was really a form of opaque varnish, which, like Japanese lacquer, was applied in layers, but it was not as strong or beautiful as the Japanese lacquer (maki-e).8 Japanese lacquer is made from the resin extracted from a sumach tree, or Rhus vernicifera, which only grows in Eastern Asia. As the resin is difficult to work with, it is applied in thin layers, each layer being rubbed down before the next is added. Lacquer workshops in Europe: Of the large number of lacquer workshops which sprang up in Germany at the end of the 17th Century and early 18th century, two are particularly noteworthy for their quality; one is Gérard Dagly's workshop in Berlin, which was established in 1687 to supply the court of Friedrich III, Elector of Brandenburg (and later first King in Prussia), and the other was established in Dresden in 1710 when Martin Schnell was employed by Augustus 'The Strong', Elector of Saxony, as his Hofflacquirer (Court lacquerer). Schnell's workshop was established at exactly the same time as the Meissen porcelain factory, and a collaboration was formed between them. Schnell is recorded as having been paid a salary by the factory for lacquering and decorating red stoneware. A Laccirer Schnell is recorded in a list of factory workers drawn up in 1710 (probably by Böttger himself), and he is recorded in 1711 as being given a lot of work. It is clear from his extremely high wages that his work was very highly regarded by Augustus, even if the wages included the cost of the gold which he needed for his work9. However, specific information about Schnell's work appears to be scant. Monika Kopplin takes on the problem of attributions for Schnell's work by comparison between simulated lacquerwork on Böttger pieces with lacquer furniture and other wood objects applied with lacquer decoration. In her essay 'All Sorts of Lacquered Chinese on a Black Glaze - Lacquer Painting on Böttger Stoneware and the Problem of Attribution to Martin Schnell', Kopplin discusses the subject in depth. She writes that 'Scholarship concurs in viewing three slender covered vases''as a safe standard by which to measure Schnell's signature style'10; and argues that the survival of lacquered lances and the invoices for them11 provides a tangible example of his work. Kopplin compares the Oriental figures found on a lacquered cabinet-on-stand in Budapest with a Böttger 'lacquered' tankard, also in Budapest12, and concludes the decoration was executed by the same hand. She notes that 'the oval shapes of the heads, the wide arc in which the brows are drawn, the parallel lines used consistently as a convention for extremely narrow eyes and the long-fingered hands follow a specific type. It corresponds exactly with the configuration of the figures - as well as the subtlety with which the tones of the lacquer painting are gradated - on the Budapest cabinet-on-stand. This style of painting may be regarded as the standard for attributing figurative decoration to Schnell'.13 Although it is assumed that Martin Schnell and his workshop decorated all the black-glazed wares made at Meissen, it is still not known if they were decorated at Meissen or in Dresden. Certainly by 1719, when an inventory was taken at the factory, something had changed, because there were almost two thousand black-glazed pieces, which were presumably unfinished because by comparison, there were very few (about thirty) pieces with further additional decoration. It seems that decoration of the black-glazed pieces had stopped. The factory's development and shift to white porcelain production from 1713 onwards could be a factor, but as from 1716 onwards, Schnell's name no longer appears in the Meissen records, it is more probable that Schnell and his workshop's attention was required in full for the fittings of the Japanese Palace, which Augustus The Strong had bought in May 1717, where he was still working in 1727.14 1. Cf. Marion van Aken-Fehmers's essay 'Objects of the Highest Esteem: Delft Black "Porcelain" 1700-1740', Schwartz Porcelain, Museum für Lackkunst and Schloss Favorite bei Rastatt 2003-2004 Exhibition Catalogue (English edition, Munich, 2004), p. 64, and also p. 70, note 41; Simon de Vries, Curieuse aenmerckingen der bysonderste Oost en West-Indische Verwonderens-waerdige dingen; nevens die van China, Africa, en andere gewesten des werelds (Utrecht, 1682), Vol. I, p. 27 and Vol. IV, pp. 844-845. 2. In China, black wares, or wares that looked black, had developed alongside the taste for lacquer. See Linda Rosenfeld Shulsky's essay 'Famille Noire and Mirror-Black: The European Taste for Black-Ground Ceramics of the Kangxi Period (1662-1722)' Schwartz Porcelain, Museum für Lackkunst and Schloss Favorite bei Rastatt 2003-2004 Exhibition Catalogue (English edition, Munich, 2004), p. 31, where she writes: 'Some dark glazes, such as those on jian wares and tenmoku wares of the Song Dynasty (920-1271), are not really black, but are very dark brown. The black colour was achieved by adding cobalt to the brown, so that brown plus blue produced black. There were black Ding wares during the Song Dynasty, which were stoneware with a dark brown glaze that seemed to be black'..'Increasing the amount of iron oxide in the glaze produced a very dark brown glaze that appeared black. These wares were intended to be used for the tea service, since the light tea would show off particularly well against black teabowls. There were also black lacquer teabowls, and black ceramic bowls were meant to copy lacquer'. 3. Johann Melchior Steinbrück, Bericht über die Porzellanmanufaktur Meissen von den Anfängen bis zum Jahre 1717 (transcription and commentary by Ingelore Menzhausen, Leipzig, 1982, pp. 75-76). 4. Oliver Impey, Chinoiserie, the Impact of Oriental Styles on Western Art and Decoration (London, 1977), p. 113. 5. Cf. Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, 'a wholly new style of porcelain': Lacquer-Style Production at the Meissen Manufactory' Schwartz Porcelain, Museum für Lackkunst and Schloss Favorite bei Rastatt 2003-2004 Exhibition Catalogue (English edition, Munich, 2004), p. 74. 6. Cassidy-Geiger, ibid., p. 74, where she lists other pieces recorded in warehouses in Dresden and Leipzig. 7. See Christiaan J. A. Jörg's essay 'Japanese Lacquerwork of the Seventeenth Century in Europe' in the Schwartz Porcelain Museum für Lackkunst and Schloss Favorite bei Rastatt 2003-2004 Exhibition Catalogue (English Edition, Munich, 2004), p. 26, where he notes that in spite of the fact that the first shipments the East India Company made from 1710 were not a success as demand was low, the Dutch imitation lacquer made by Willem Kick of Amsterdam at exactly the same time did sell well, indicating that Japanese lacquer was prohibitively expensive. 8. See Oliver Impey, Chinoiserie, the Impact of Oriental Styles on Western Art and Decoration (London, 1977), p. 114. 9. As pointed out by Monika Kopplin in her essay 'All Sorts of Lacquered Chinese on a Black Glaze - Lacquer Painting on Böttger Stoneware and the Problem of Attribution to Martin Schnell' in the 'Schwartz Porcelain' Exhibition Catalogue (English Edition, Munich, 2004), p. 84, and also see p. 90 for the source, Ernst Zimmermann, Die Erfindung und Frühzeit des Meissner Porzellans. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der deutschen Keramik (Berlin, 1908), p. 325. The 1712 factory payroll records that Schnell's monthly salary was 100 Reichstaler. 10. These vases (inv. P. E. 951 and P. E. 953 and P. E. 2487) were delivered to the Japanese Palace in 1727. 11. The lances were used for tilting at rings during the Elector's marriage celebrations. Cf. Kopplin, ibid., p. 84, and p. 91, note 17 for the source; Matthäus Daniel Pöppelmann, 1662-1736. Ein Architekt des Barocks in Dresden. (Dresden, 1987), nos. 362-364. 12. Both the cabinet and the tankard are in the Ungarisches Kunstgewerbemuseum, Budapest, see Kopplin, ibid. (German 2003 edition), p. 179, figs 16 and 18. 13. ibid (English Edition, 2004), p. 87. 14. Jakob Heinrich, Count von Flemming built the palace in Dresden in 1715 1716 which became known the Japanese Palace, and sold it to Augustus The Strong in 1717, who transformed it into a porcelain palace in time for his wedding celebrations in September 1719.

A BÖTTGER BLACK GLAZED RED STONEWARE SMALL BOWL

CIRCA 1711-1715

Details

A BÖTTGER BLACK GLAZED RED STONEWARE SMALL BOWL
CIRCA 1711-1715
Glazed to simulate Oriental lacquer and decorated in the Schnell workshop, Dresden, probably by the master, in red and pale-orange cold colours and gilding, with Orientals at various pursuits, one climbing a tree, another picking leaves from a plant, between double gilt line borders, the interior with flowers below a strapwork and half-flowerhead border, the underside gilt within the footrim (areas of wear, in particular to base of interior, footrim ground and with adjacent minute chip to glaze probably dating from time of manufacture)
3 5/8 in. (9.3 cm.) diam.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

For a discussion of Martin Schnell and the attribution of pieces to him, see Monika Kopplin et al., Schwartz Porcelain, Museum für Lackkunst and Schloss Favorite bei Rastatt 2003-2004 Exhibition Catalogue (Munich, 2003), pp. 171-193, where she illustrates a number of pieces with similar simulated lacquer and chinoiserie decoration, some of which are attributed to him, and some to his workshop. Kopplin attributes the tankard in the Schlossmuseum, Gotha, and the tankard in the Ungarisches Kunstgewerbemuseum, Budapest to Schnell's hand, and they are both illustrated by her; the first on p. 175, fig. 6 and p. 170, and the second on pp. 178 and 179, figs 15 and 16. Both tankards show figures which are identical in treatment to the present lot. A coffee-pot, illustrated on p. 180, fig. 20, which was also sold in these Rooms on 8th July 2002, lot 2, is decorated with similar figures, and is attributed to Schnell's workshop. A teabowl and saucer of the same form, decorated in gilding (without any cold colours) with Oriental figures, is given to Schnell's workshop and is illustrated on p. 189, fig. 88.

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