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Lot Essay
The Arms are those of Charles Bourbon-Parma (1716-1788), King Charles VII of the Two Sicilies, later King Charles III of Spain, and his wife Maria Amalia (1724-60). Their marriage took place by proxy in Dresden in May 1738. In the same month Maria Amalia travelled to Naples to meet Charles VII and was apparently given a silver toilet-service by her father, Augustus III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland. Records at Meissen in April 1738 record that a small service of six teabowls and saucers and six chocolate beakers was in production.
Only four teabowls and three beakers are recorded. No saucers have been recorded and the silver items from the toilet-service appear to have been lost. The other two teabowls were sold by Christie's Geneva on 11th May 1987, lot 188, and one of these is now in the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche di Faenza. For the beaker in the Malcolm Gutter Collection, see the Exhibition Catalogue Evolution of a Royal Vision, The Birth of Meissen Porcelain, San Francisco, 2010, pp. 22-23, and Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), Exhibition Catalogue Fragile Diplomacy, Meissen Porcelain for European Courts ca. 1710-63, Bard Graduate Center, New York, Singapore, 2007, p. 219, fig. 10-20. A beaker from the Dr. Albert Weitnauer Collection, Bern, was sold by Christie's Geneva on 11th November 1985, lot 351 and entered the Hoffmeister Collection and was recently sold by Bonhams in the Hoffmeister Collection, Part I, on 25th November 2009, lot 85.
Only four teabowls and three beakers are recorded. No saucers have been recorded and the silver items from the toilet-service appear to have been lost. The other two teabowls were sold by Christie's Geneva on 11th May 1987, lot 188, and one of these is now in the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche di Faenza. For the beaker in the Malcolm Gutter Collection, see the Exhibition Catalogue Evolution of a Royal Vision, The Birth of Meissen Porcelain, San Francisco, 2010, pp. 22-23, and Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (ed.), Exhibition Catalogue Fragile Diplomacy, Meissen Porcelain for European Courts ca. 1710-63, Bard Graduate Center, New York, Singapore, 2007, p. 219, fig. 10-20. A beaker from the Dr. Albert Weitnauer Collection, Bern, was sold by Christie's Geneva on 11th November 1985, lot 351 and entered the Hoffmeister Collection and was recently sold by Bonhams in the Hoffmeister Collection, Part I, on 25th November 2009, lot 85.