MAKER'S MARK OF CARL DAVID SCHRODEL, DRESDEN, CIRCA 1770, DATE LETTER, Y INCUSE, ON TWO PLATES

The monogram is that of Frederick Augustus III (1750-1827) who succeeded his father Frederick Christian in 1763. Frederick Christian reigned only for two months and a regency was set up to govern until his successor came of age in 1768. Frederick Augustus, known as The Just, added to the silver in the Dresden Hofsilberkammer in spite of having to pay off the immense debts incurred by his predecessors. In 1791 he was offered the Polish crown but turned it down remembering the ravages suffered by Saxony in the Silesian Wars. After the Napoleonic Wars his kingdom was partitioned with two thirds going to Prussia but he retained the remainder and his title.
A similar engraved monogram on a silver dish by Carl David Schrödel in the Green Vaults, Dresden, is illustrated by Arnold, U., Dresedener Hofsilber des 18. Jahrhunderts, Leipzig, 1994, fig. 18 and on a pair of candlesticks sold at Christie's Geneva, May 19, 1997, lot 96.