CIRCA 1745, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK, PRESSNUMMER 16

The coat-of-arms (a Cistercian monk on a field or) is that of Gerlach Adolf von Münchhausen (1688-1770), and this plate is from the service given by Augustus III of Saxony and delivered in 1745. From 1732 von Münchhausen was Prime Minister of the Brunswick-Hanover territories owned by George II of England (who was also Elector of Hanover). Importantly, he directed secret negotiations in order to engineer a loan of 3.5 million thalers from Brunswick to Saxony. Correspondence between Graf von Hennicke and von Münchhausen (now in the Dresden archive) also record Hennicke urgently requesting a drawing of Münchhausen's coat-of-arms (letter dated 4th January 1745), and by April Münchhausen wrote to thank him for 'the magnificent gift of porcelain from His Majesty'. After George II's death, George III appointed him first minister of Brunswick-Hanover.

A tureen and cover from the service was sold in these Rooms on 13th December 2001, lot 657. For a listing of other pieces in the service see D. Hoffmeister, Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts, Katalog der Sammlung Hoffmeister, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg (Hamburg, 1999), Vol. II, p. 552. For a discussion of the service, see Claus Boltz, 'Zu einem Meißner Tafelservice', Dresdener Kunstblätter, 1975, No. IV, pp. 114-118, and M. Cassidy-Geiger, Fragile Diplomacy, Bard Graduate Center, New York, Exhibition Catalogue (Singapore, 2007), pp. 197-198. For two plates exhibited with knives and forks, see Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts aus Bad Pyrmonter Privatbesitz, Schloss Bad Pyrmont November 2002 - January 2003 Exhibition Catalogue (2002), pp. 86-87.