An important documentary Nymphenburg vase made for the Silver Jubilee of King Max I of Bavaria circa 1824

the vase form designed by Friedrich von Gärtner, the decoration designed by Johann Martin von Wagner and painted by Christian Adler, each side of the double-handled vase with a gilt vermiculé and jewelled cartouche enclosing, on one side an allegorical depiction of of King Max I as Protector of the Arts and Sciences, inscribed 'LITTERIS ET ARTIBUS'  above various classical figures representing the Arts and Sciences, as well as portraits of the King and Queen Caroline, the back room hung with portraits of the artists Wohlgemuth, Adam Krafft, Albrecht Dürer and Peter Vischer, the reverse with a iron-red ground panel painted in grey with the female figure of Bavaria in a chariot pulled by lions, each panel below a blue-ground panel  with a gilt depiction of a lady kneeling before an obelisk, enclosed by gilt grotesques and scrolling foliage, the sides with a gilt-edged matte-blue-ground panel applied with the gilt handles with mask terminals and foliage heightened in green in imitation of bronze, the lower body with a band of gilt foliage above trelliswork on a matte-blue-ground, the flared neck with a blue-ground with gilt trellis pattern, reserved with arched panels painted en grisaille with Peace and the Bavarian Lion, the flared foot with a similar ground

Presented to King Max I of Bavaria on the occasion of his Silver Jubilee in 1824

K.Hantschmann, Nymphenburger Porzellan 1797 bis 1847, Munich 1996, cat.no.190 (illustrated)

This vase was commissioned by the Bavarian Finance Minister, Baron von Lerchenfeld, who was responible for the Nymphenburg manufactory. According to Friedrich Gärtner's correspondence with Johann Martin von Wagner in Rome (quoted by Hantschmann. op.cit., p.330), the vase was commissioned at fairly short notice, and Gärtner sought von Wagner's assistance with the design of the painting. Another vase depicting an homage to King Max I is in the Bäuml Collection, Munich (illustrated by Hantschmann, op.cit., cat.no.182).