A rare Meissen Hausmaler bowl and cover the porcelain circa 1725, the decoration slightly later

possibly by Ignaz Bottengruber, painted around the exterior of the bowl with a continuous scene of Bacchus and Ariadne, he riding in his chariot drawn by panthers, and she seated beneath a tent and attended by a satyr, beneath a narrow gilt scrollwork and diaper-panelled border, and set with two angular handles gilt with stylized foliate devices, the domed cover finely painted with a dense garland of colorful flowers within a gilt scrollwork border and set with a branch-form knop. Tiny chip to foot of bowl.

Sold, Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., February 26, 1975, lot 231

Bottengruber worked at Breslau and then at Vienna and a body of work is attributed to him on the basis of a number of signed pieces executed between 1726 and 1730. For a detailed discussion of his work see Gustav E. Pauzarek, Deutsche Faience und Porzellan Maler, Vol. 1, pp. 165-192; and Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, "The Porcelain Decoration of Ignaz Bottengruber", Metropolitan Museum Journal 33, pp. 245-262.

The style of figure painting on the present piece can be compared to that found on a Vienna bowl in the Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, signed by Bottengruber and dated 1730, illustrated by Pauzarek, op. cit., p. 175, no. 142 and also by Cassidy-Geiger, op. cit., p. 246, fig. 3. A similar bowl was sold in these rooms, October 9, 1973, lot 41. The flower painting on the cover can also be compared to that found on a signed and dated beaker and saucer, also in the Österreichisches Museum and illustrated by Pauzarek, op. cit., col. pl. 15; the saucer also illustrated by Cassidy-Geiger, p. 258, fig. 50.

Flower painting in this style however is not exclusive to Bottengruber, and an attribution to another Breslau or Vienna artist cannot be ruled out.