According to the 1733 Specification von Porcilan, a listing of the Meissen porcelains ordered for the Japanese Palace, though not necessarily produced, 'Hoch-Gelb-Couleur', [deep-yellow-colour] Meissen porcelain was allocated to so-designated Room 3, between the rooms for seladon and dark-blue-ground Meissen porcelains. The large order of yellow-ground porcelain included approximately 267 vases, bottles and beakers, including 6 garnitures formed of seven vases and 2 garnitures formed of five vases, as well as over 1,000 tablewares including standing cups, Cassidy-Geiger, 1996, pp. 121-22.
(Right) A yellow-ground ogee vase formerly in the Royal Collections of Saxony, Dresden, now presumed lost
A yellow-ground ogee (waisted bottle) vase decorated in this manner (41 cm high), formerly in the Royal Collections of Saxony, Dresden, may have once formed a garniture with the present vases. That vase, missing since 1945, was originally installed in the Turmzimmer of the Residenzschloss, bearing Hausmarschallamt number III 381, and is illustrated in Anette Loesch, 2019, pp. 228-29, cat. 47. An assembled garniture of three yellow-ground vases decorated in this manner was in the collection of S. Carter Burden and sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, February 26, 1975, lot 253; it was subsequently in the Christener Collection, Dallas, later selling at Christie's New York, June 8, 1979, lot 124. The two ogee vases from this same garniture (each with a differently gilt foot) may have formerly belonged to other pairs or garnitures. The central vase, which may have formed part of a garniture with the present lot and the Dresden vase, sold again at Christie's Paris, April 16-17, 2008, lot 261, and most recently at Bonhams, London, July 22, 2020, lot 62.
The figures in the larger reserved panels are based on engravings by Petrus Schenk the Younger (1718-1775), from the series Nieuwe geinventeerde Sineesen, plates 2 and 13. The somewhat unusual leaf-form cartouches seen on the present vases are recorded on Chinese Kangxi vases, examples of which were in Augustus the Strong's collection, now in the Porzellansammlung, Dresden, inv. no. PO3271.
