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Lot Essay
The blue and gilt enamel plaque at the base of the tea urn reads Ihren Koniglicen Hoheiten dem Prinzen Wilhelm von Preussen und der Prinzessin Auguste Victoria, zu Hochst Ihrer Vermahlung in hesster Ehrfurcht gewidmet von der Provinz Westpreussen 27 Februar 1881 (To their Royal Highnesses the Prince Wilhelm of Prussia and the Princess Auguste Victoria, presented on the occasion of your wedding with devotion for the West Province of Prussia 27 February 1881), indicating that the tea set was commissioned specifically on the occasion of the 1881 royal wedding of Prince Wilhelm II and his cousin Princess Auguste Victoria. The prince and princess’s coats-of-arms accole are represented throughout the service.
PRINCE WILHELM II AND PRINCESS AUGUSTE VICTORIA
On 27 February 1881, Prince Wilhelm II (Fredrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert), married his cousin Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Wilhelm was the son of Prince Frederick William of Prussia and Princess Victoria. His mother was first child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The princess, known as “Dona” was the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, great-niece of Queen Victoria; Victoria’s older half-sister Fedora of Leningen was Dona’s maternal grandmother. Determined to marry a princess, Wilhelm had first proposed to another cousin, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse by Rhine, but his offer was declined. The match with Dona is believed to have been orchestrated and encouraged by Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck. The couple remained married for the next forty years and had seven children.
Wilhelm ascended the throne in June 1888 in what is referred to as the Year of the Three Emperors; Wilhem’s grandfather, Wilhelm I, died on 9 March 1888 and his father, Frederick III, died only 99 days later. Unlike the reign of his grandfather, Wilhelm was determined to both reign and rule Germany. Despite his assertions to aggressively expand Germany, with little regard for international diplomacy, Wilhelm took a hands-off approach to military strategy, leaving the decision making to the German Army’s Great General Staff. By 1916, the delegation, which was overseeing all national policy related to the war, had given rise to a military dictatorship. Sidelined by his military, Wilhelm lost the support of his subjects and was forced to abdicate during the German Revolution 1918-1919, which disbanded German’s monarchy and created a new democratic state known as the Weimar Republic.
Wilhelm was offered asylum in the Netherlands by Queen Wilhelmina, and in 1919, he purchased a manor house, Huis Doorn, in Doorn for 500,000 guilders. Huis Doorn was first built in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 14th and 19th centuries. The couple was permitted to travel freely within a ten-kilometer radius of the house, and Wilhelm busied himself by chopping wood from trees on the estate.
Remembered for his passion for the arts and his appreciation of sumptuous comforts, Wilhelm was determined to furnish Huis Doorn in a fashion comparable to that he enjoyed in Germany. The Weimar Republic permitted Wilhelm to remove sixty railway wagons of property from the country, including twenty-three wagons filled with contents from the New Palace in Potsdam. In addition to a car and a boat, the former Emperor brought a large selection of silver, porcelain, fine art and furniture with him to the Netherlands. Presumably, the present tea set was among the fine silver relocated to Huis Dornn.
Reeling from the abdication and the loss of her son Joachim, Dona died at Doorn in 1921. Her remains were permitted to be transported back to Germany, and she was interred at the Temple of Antiquities, near the New Palace. Wilhelm remarried in November 1922 to Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz. He died of a pulmonary embolism in Doorn on 4 June 1941. He requested that his body should not be returned to Germany unless the monarchy was restored, and that any regalia related to the Nazi Party not be displayed at his funeral. Hitler begrudgingly agreed for Wilhelm to be buried in the Netherlands but ignored his second request.
HERMANN ENDE AND THE TEASET DESIGN
The maker, modeler and designer of the present lot were identified in the cataloguing of the tea service when it was sold at auction in 1954. As the sale included a number of silver lots commissioned for the 1881 royal wedding, it can be presumed that the group was consigned by a direct descendant of Wilhelm II.
Professor Hemann Gustav Louis Ende (1829-1907), the designer of this extraordinary service, was born in the city of Landsbert an der Warthe, Prussia. He studied building and drafting at the Bauakademie in Berlin from 1851-1855, and in 1860 founded the architectural firm Ende & Böckmann with friend Friedrich Wilhelm Böckmann (1832-1902). Regarded as one of the most influential design firms in Germany, Ende & Böckmann are credited for developing the architectural style of building in Berlin in the late 19th century. Commissions include the Deutsche-Union Bank, Café Bauer, the Museum of Ethnology, and several buildings in the Berlin Zoological Garden (elephant, antelope and large cat houses). In 1887 the partners were invited to Japan by the Meiji government to develop plans to transform Tokyo into a modern capital city. Ende & Böckmann envisioned Tokyo as a magnificent baroque city to rival Berlin or Paris. Although the plans received cultural backlash for ignoring traditional Japanese architecture in favor of western design, the actual nail-in-the-coffin for the project was the extraordinary budget required to build Ende & Böckmann’s Tokyo. In 1895 the Japanese government revived firm’s plans for the new Ministry of Justice building, however the commission was carried-out by another, less expensive builder.
The invitation to design an extraordinary wedding gift for the future king and queen was a momentous opportunity for Professor Ende. As one of Germany’s strongest proponents of the continuation of the baroque style, Ende took inspiration from the most extravagant extant example of baroque hot beverage services—the magnificent Gold Coffee Service in the collection of the Green Vault in Dresden. Made for Augustus the Strong between 1697-1701 by Dresden court goldsmith, Johan Melchoir Dinglinger, and with enameling by his brother Georg Friedrich Dinglinger, the Gold Coffee Service is among the earliest works known by J.M. Dinglinger and considered a vanguard of the “Dresden Baroque” style (see Menzhausen, Joachim, The Green Vaults, 1970, p. 99, illus. 96). For the present lot, Ende drew on the stepped composition and inclusion of silver and gold tones of the Gold Service. Instead of a matching two-handled tray as one would expect to find accompanying a 19th century tea service, Ende reimagined Dinglinger’s shaped oval base specifically fitted for the service’s various implements. Wilhelm II’s contemporaries and historians have described him as a man with a penchant for luxury and lavish comforts—a true baroque gentleman. The present tea service, with its rich combination of stately motifs, finely executed technique and opulent design would certainly have been a splendid gift fit a king.
PRINCE WILHELM II AND PRINCESS AUGUSTE VICTORIA
On 27 February 1881, Prince Wilhelm II (Fredrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert), married his cousin Princess Augusta Victoria of Schleswig-Holstein. Wilhelm was the son of Prince Frederick William of Prussia and Princess Victoria. His mother was first child of Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha. The princess, known as “Dona” was the eldest daughter of Frederick VIII, Duke of Schleswig-Holstein and Princess Adelheid of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, great-niece of Queen Victoria; Victoria’s older half-sister Fedora of Leningen was Dona’s maternal grandmother. Determined to marry a princess, Wilhelm had first proposed to another cousin, Princess Elisabeth of Hesse by Rhine, but his offer was declined. The match with Dona is believed to have been orchestrated and encouraged by Chancellor Otto Von Bismarck. The couple remained married for the next forty years and had seven children.
Wilhelm ascended the throne in June 1888 in what is referred to as the Year of the Three Emperors; Wilhem’s grandfather, Wilhelm I, died on 9 March 1888 and his father, Frederick III, died only 99 days later. Unlike the reign of his grandfather, Wilhelm was determined to both reign and rule Germany. Despite his assertions to aggressively expand Germany, with little regard for international diplomacy, Wilhelm took a hands-off approach to military strategy, leaving the decision making to the German Army’s Great General Staff. By 1916, the delegation, which was overseeing all national policy related to the war, had given rise to a military dictatorship. Sidelined by his military, Wilhelm lost the support of his subjects and was forced to abdicate during the German Revolution 1918-1919, which disbanded German’s monarchy and created a new democratic state known as the Weimar Republic.
Wilhelm was offered asylum in the Netherlands by Queen Wilhelmina, and in 1919, he purchased a manor house, Huis Doorn, in Doorn for 500,000 guilders. Huis Doorn was first built in the 13th century and rebuilt in the 14th and 19th centuries. The couple was permitted to travel freely within a ten-kilometer radius of the house, and Wilhelm busied himself by chopping wood from trees on the estate.
Remembered for his passion for the arts and his appreciation of sumptuous comforts, Wilhelm was determined to furnish Huis Doorn in a fashion comparable to that he enjoyed in Germany. The Weimar Republic permitted Wilhelm to remove sixty railway wagons of property from the country, including twenty-three wagons filled with contents from the New Palace in Potsdam. In addition to a car and a boat, the former Emperor brought a large selection of silver, porcelain, fine art and furniture with him to the Netherlands. Presumably, the present tea set was among the fine silver relocated to Huis Dornn.
Reeling from the abdication and the loss of her son Joachim, Dona died at Doorn in 1921. Her remains were permitted to be transported back to Germany, and she was interred at the Temple of Antiquities, near the New Palace. Wilhelm remarried in November 1922 to Princess Hermine Reuss of Greiz. He died of a pulmonary embolism in Doorn on 4 June 1941. He requested that his body should not be returned to Germany unless the monarchy was restored, and that any regalia related to the Nazi Party not be displayed at his funeral. Hitler begrudgingly agreed for Wilhelm to be buried in the Netherlands but ignored his second request.
HERMANN ENDE AND THE TEASET DESIGN
The maker, modeler and designer of the present lot were identified in the cataloguing of the tea service when it was sold at auction in 1954. As the sale included a number of silver lots commissioned for the 1881 royal wedding, it can be presumed that the group was consigned by a direct descendant of Wilhelm II.
Professor Hemann Gustav Louis Ende (1829-1907), the designer of this extraordinary service, was born in the city of Landsbert an der Warthe, Prussia. He studied building and drafting at the Bauakademie in Berlin from 1851-1855, and in 1860 founded the architectural firm Ende & Böckmann with friend Friedrich Wilhelm Böckmann (1832-1902). Regarded as one of the most influential design firms in Germany, Ende & Böckmann are credited for developing the architectural style of building in Berlin in the late 19th century. Commissions include the Deutsche-Union Bank, Café Bauer, the Museum of Ethnology, and several buildings in the Berlin Zoological Garden (elephant, antelope and large cat houses). In 1887 the partners were invited to Japan by the Meiji government to develop plans to transform Tokyo into a modern capital city. Ende & Böckmann envisioned Tokyo as a magnificent baroque city to rival Berlin or Paris. Although the plans received cultural backlash for ignoring traditional Japanese architecture in favor of western design, the actual nail-in-the-coffin for the project was the extraordinary budget required to build Ende & Böckmann’s Tokyo. In 1895 the Japanese government revived firm’s plans for the new Ministry of Justice building, however the commission was carried-out by another, less expensive builder.
The invitation to design an extraordinary wedding gift for the future king and queen was a momentous opportunity for Professor Ende. As one of Germany’s strongest proponents of the continuation of the baroque style, Ende took inspiration from the most extravagant extant example of baroque hot beverage services—the magnificent Gold Coffee Service in the collection of the Green Vault in Dresden. Made for Augustus the Strong between 1697-1701 by Dresden court goldsmith, Johan Melchoir Dinglinger, and with enameling by his brother Georg Friedrich Dinglinger, the Gold Coffee Service is among the earliest works known by J.M. Dinglinger and considered a vanguard of the “Dresden Baroque” style (see Menzhausen, Joachim, The Green Vaults, 1970, p. 99, illus. 96). For the present lot, Ende drew on the stepped composition and inclusion of silver and gold tones of the Gold Service. Instead of a matching two-handled tray as one would expect to find accompanying a 19th century tea service, Ende reimagined Dinglinger’s shaped oval base specifically fitted for the service’s various implements. Wilhelm II’s contemporaries and historians have described him as a man with a penchant for luxury and lavish comforts—a true baroque gentleman. The present tea service, with its rich combination of stately motifs, finely executed technique and opulent design would certainly have been a splendid gift fit a king.