CIRCA 1715-17, THE DECORATION CIRCA 1717, JOHANN GEORGE FUNCKE WORKSHOP, DRESDEN

Before Johann Friedrich Höroldt arrived from Vienna in 1720, establishing his own painting workshop within the factory at Meissen, the factory had contracted out painted decoration of white porcelain to the Dresden goldsmith’s workshop of Johann George Funcke. This relationship started on 13th May 1713. The invoices Funcke sent to the factory for enamelled colours still survive, and their publication by Claus Bolz gives an indication of the dating of Funcke’s decoration.¹ By 1717, Funcke was billing Meissen for the colours blue, green and puce, but red and black are colours which didn’t make an appearance in his invoices until 1718. The absence of black and red on the present teapot suggests that its decoration probably pre-dates 1718.

The ‘Indian’ decoration, loosely based on Japanese Kakiemon designs, is related to the blossoming branches issuing from stylised rockwork on a beaker in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, Berlin,² and on the reverse of an armorial beaker in the British Museum, London.³

1. Claus Bolz, ‘Steinzeug und Porzellan der Böttgerperiode’ in Keramos, No. 167⁄168, 2000, p. 143.
2. Ulrich Pietsch and Claudia Banz ed., Triumph of the Blue Swords, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden, Exhibition Catalogue, Leipzig, 2010, p. 178, Cat. No. 32.
3. The beaker and its saucer are both painted with the arms of Electress Sophie of Hanover (inv. No. 131, 13-8,5), see Pietsch and Banz ed., ibid., 2010, p. 179, Cat. No. 35, and also T.H. Clarke, ‘Böttger-Wappenporzellan’ in Keramos, No. 95, January 1982, p. 22, fig. 2.