A rare and important Royal German Neoclassical porcelain-inlaid ormolu guéridon Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur, Berlin, circa 1818-1819, probably after a design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel, the porcelain plaque signed Krüger 1818

the circular top with a quadruple border cast with trellis-work and enclosing a porcelain plaque depicting a great variety of flowers, raised on an ormolu stem in the form of a palm tree terminating in curled ormolu leaves at the bottom, on a circular dished ormolu base cast with a gadrooned frieze and fitted with a pierced gallery, raised on ormolu bun feet.  

Friedrich Wilhelm III (1770-1840), King of Prussia (1797-1840)
Probably delivered for Empress Maria Feodorovna (1759-1828) for the Palace of Pavlovsk
Imperial Russian Palace Collections, sold R. Lepke, Berlin, 1928
Christie's Monaco, July 1, 1995, lot 173

Dr. Ilse Baer, Table Tops from the Berlin Porcelain Manufactory (KPM) from the First Half of the Nineteenth Century, The International Ceramics Fair and Seminar Handbook, 2001, p. 18, note 12

Ormolu with scattered areas of rubbing, traces of surface dirt and oxidation. Gallery of base with small breaks, some areas with minor losses and bending in isolated areas. The porcelain with some slight rubbing to the enamels of the grey-ground enamel around the edge, where it would have been set into the furniture, and some faint light occasional scratching, particularly in the area of yellow flowers.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

This guéridon is listed in the Royal Account Book of King Friedrich Wilhelm III for 1819 described as a round table top with floral design on a dark ground and a bronze stand like a palm tree.  It is the only one from this group painted on a dark ground.

It is one of a group of seven such tables produced at the KPM manufactory in Berlin and identified by Dr. Ilse Baer, each cast in ormolu in the form of a palm tree emerging from a pot and surmounted by a circular porcelain plaque. These were produced in Berlin between 1818 and 1821, probably after a design by Karl Friedrich Schinkel (1777-1841) (H. Börsch-Supan, Die Kataloge der Berliner Akademie-Austellungen 1786-1850, Berlin, 1971, Nr. 1994).  The account book in the KPM archives reveals that each table described as "a bronze stand like a palm tree" was gilt and priced at 236 Reichstaler, while the tops were priced at 100 Reichstaler each (I. Baer, op. cit., pp. 13-14).  All of the tables, with the exception of the Elgin table discussed below, were decorated with a floral design on a white or dark ground or "coloured grapes."

One of these tables, also depicting flowers on its top, is currently in a private European collection. The second was formerly in the collection of 11th Earl of Elgin and 15th Earl of Kinkardine, K.T. and sold Sotheby's London, June 13, 2001, lot 325. That table, inset with a roundel bearing the mark of the Berlin porcelain factory, was gifted to Frederick William Augustus Bruce (1814-1867), son of Thomas Elgin, as a christening present by Frederich William III of Prussia (1770-1840). A third is shown in a watercolor of 1847 in the Berlin Stadtschloss, destroyed in World War II. The fourth table of this form is at Pavlovsk Palace, in the dressing room of Empress Maria Feodorovna (1759-1828), see Alain de Gourcuff, ed., Pavlovsk, The Palace and The Park, Paris, 1993, p. 136.  This table was ordered in December 1818 for "Her Majesty, the Russian Empress, mother."  This was a gift from Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovitch, brother of Tsar Alexander I, to his mother Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna (née Sophie Dorothea von Württemberg).  The Duke married Princess Charlotte, daughter of King Friedrich Wilhelm III of Prussia in 1817.

The attribution to Schinkel rests on the reference to a table by Werner & Neffen exhibited in the Berlin Academy in 1836 (see H. Börsch-Supan, op. cit., 1836, Nr. 1194).  This table cast in bronze and ormolu and in the form of a palm tree is stated to be after a drawing by Schinkel.

It is possible that this table was a pair to the one at Pavlovsk. The construction of Pavlovsk Palace was initiated by duchess Maria Feodorovna and duke Pavel Petrovich (1754-1801) in 1781 after the birth of their first son. After her husband's assassination in 1801, Maria Feodorovna retired to Pavlovsk, which was partially consumed by fire in 1803. Maria Feodorovna employed Alexander Voronikhin and Carlo Rossi, among others, to head the renovations and the redecoration of the state apartments. The guéridon now in her dressing room entered the Imperial Collection following this period of reconstruction as a gift from her son Grand Duke Nikolai Pavlovitch.  The Grand Duke (1796-1855), the future Tsar Nicholas I, was a major client of the KPM manufactory, witnessed by the magnificent table commissioned for his wedding in 1817, sold by the Soviets, Lepke, Berlin, November 6-7, 1928, and now in the Hillwood Museum, as well as his wedding service, neither of which were delivered until 1823.  The signature on the porcelain plaque may be that of Karl Friedrich Peter Krüger (1782-1832), who worked for the KPM from 1796-1829 (information kindly supplied by Eva Wollschläger).