CIRCA 1778, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS, STAR AND 4 MARKS

Details

A MEISSEN (MARCOLINI) BLUE-GROUND PORTRAIT CUP AND SAUCER
CIRCA 1778, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS, STAR AND 4 MARKS
The cup of ogee form with a channelled angular handle, each side finely stippled with quarter-length portraits of Camillo Count Marcolini and his wife Maria Anna Baroness O'Kelly to the right and left, within circular two-tone gilt flower and ribbon cartouches, the saucer with two figures languishing at the flaming altar of Hymen inscribed L'Amitié nous unit, within a similar cartouche, gilt ovolo borders (saucer cracked across and repaired with associated filled loss to rim at 6 o'clock and restuck section of footrim, some flaking to gilding, minute chip to handle)

Provenance

Anon., sale Christie's, 7th May 1973, lot 163 (part)
Anon., sale Christie's Geneva, 13th November 1989, lot 128.

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 15% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

This cup and saucer is part of a service sold in these Rooms in May 1973, and the sugar-basin in the service bears CM and MM floral monograms beneath bridal crowns, indicating that the service could have been made to commemorate Marcolini's marriage in May 1778. Pieces of the service are in a number of museums, including Schloss Lustheim in Oberschleissheim, the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, the Museum of Ceramics in Faenza and the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich. For a discussion of the service, see Abraham L. den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum (Amsterdam, 2000), p. 368, no. 264.

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