A very rare Berlin commemorative cabinet cup and saucer with a portrait of King George V of Hannover as an infant circa 1819

the cup painted with a broad band of flowers with tooled gilt stiff-leaf borders, reserved with an oval portrait of the child within a gilt frame, the saucer with gilt central medallion inscribed George born 27 May 1819, enclosed by a broad band of leaves and lily-of-the-valley and a tooled gilt border to the rim, the cup interior gilt

Ernst August I King of Hannover, Prince of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Cumberland (1771-1851);
Thence by descent;
Schloss Herrenhausen, Hannover (20th century Inventory, no.85);
Works of Art from the Royal House of Hanover, Sotheby's Schloss Marienburg, 9th October 2005, lot 2358

Ony two such commemorative cabinet cups and saucers are recorded, both of which remained in the possession of the Royal House of Hannover until 2005. George V's father, Ernst August, Duke of Cumberland, and from 1837, King of Hannover, had close ties to the Prussian court and was married to Princess Frederica of Mecklenburg-Strelitz, sister of Queen Luise of Prussia. As a consequence of these close ties, the Duke acquired an extensive and important collection of Berlin porcelain, including numerous gifts from the Prussian court. His son, later King George V of Hannover, was born in Berlin, and this very fine cup and saucer was commissioned to commemorate the event, doubtless intended either for personal use, or as a gift within intimate family circles.

King George V of Hannover (1819-78) succeeded his father to the throne in 1851. Blind since childhood, George married in 1843 Princess Marie of Saxe-Altenburg, to whom he was devoted and for whom he was later to build Schloss Marienburg. The King was forced into exile in Austria in 1866 after Prussian troops overran the Kingdom of Hannover, and remained so to his death in Paris in 1878. He is buried at Windsor alongside his ancestors, the Kings of England and Hannover.