LATE 18TH CENTURY, BLUE SCEPTRE AND DASH MARKS, PRESSNUMMER 31 AND INCISED NUMERALS

Berlin services of this type, incorporating strong neo classical elements into the design, and with this decoration, known as the 'Kurländer Muster' pattern, were frequently intended as important diplomatic gifts. A service dating to around 1795 with the same pattern as the present lot was made for Peter Biron (1724-1800), the last Duke of Courland and another, with slight variants to the design (with white moulded swags) was produced two years later for Crown Prince Friedrich Wilhelm III himself. The present service was probably given by Fredrich Wilhelm III, when King of Prussia, to the 3rd Earl Bathurst (who held various governmental posts during the Napoleonic wars including serving as Secretary of State for War and the Colonies from 1812) in the early 19th century. See Erich Köllmann and Margarete Jarchow, Berliner Porzellan, Munich, 1987, Vol. II, p. 458, fig. 305 for an illustration of an ice-pail with the same pattern as the present lot, and Vol. I, p. 156 for the associated discussion of the Courland service; see also Erich Köllmann and Margarete Jarchow, ibid., Munich, 1987, Vol. II, p. 460, fig. 308 for an icepail from the Crown Prince's service with white moulded swags and rose sprig decoration.