Selected Meissen and Other Ceramics from the Collection of Henry H. Arnhold
Selected Meissen and Other Ceramics from the Collection of Henry H. Arnhold
AN EARLY MEISSEN OCTAGONAL SUGAR BOX AND COVER CIRCA 1715-18
Auction Closed
October 24, 05:26 PM GMT
Estimate
10,000 - 15,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
AN EARLY MEISSEN OCTAGONAL SUGAR BOX AND COVER CIRCA 1715-18
the decoration attributed to the workshop of George Funcke, Dresden, the sugar box with gilt crossed branches on each side issuing orange-red, yellow and green leaves and further pink, blue and pale-blue foliage, the cover similarly decorated.
Length 4¼ in.
10.8 cm
Sotheby's New York, May 4, 1999, lot 10
Cassidy-Geiger, 2008, no. 138, p. 371, illus.
Before the arrival of Johann Gregorius Höroldt from Vienna in 1720, decoration of Meissen porcelains was accomplished by independent decorators attached the Dresden Court. It is recorded that George Funcke was supplying decorated porcelain by 1713, as referenced by Rainer Rückert, Biographische Daten der Meißener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1990, p. 147, in a surviving archival letter dated June 6 1719: 'George Funcke, Goldarbeiter hat in der Königl.und Churfl.Porcellain Factur. Sechs Jahr daß Porcellain gemahlet mit allerhand bunten farben und auch Solches', [George Funcke, goldsmith, for six years has painted porcelain with all sorts of bright colors and fired them...]. George Funcke's surviving invoices are reproduced in Claus Boltz, 'Steinzeug und Porzellan der Böttgerperiode - Die Inventare und die Ostermesse des Jahres 1719', Keramos, 2000, No. 167/168, pp. 3-156.
The trailing flowers on the present pieces can be compared to the flower decoration seen on other early wares including a pair of quadrangular bottle vases and covers in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, mus. no. C.22&A-1956; and those which feature on the service for Sophie, Electress of Hannover, illustrated in Dieter Hoffmeister, Meißener Porzellan Des 18. Jahrhunderts Katalog Der Sammlung Hoffmeister, Hamburg, 1999, Vol II, no. 301.
The distinctive motif of crossing branches on the present lot appears on a waste bowl, and a teabowl and saucer in the Grassimuseum für angewandte Kunst, Leipzig, illustrated in Dieter Gielke, Meißener Porzellan des 18. and 19. Jahrhunderts: Bestandskatalog der Sammlung des Grassimuseums Leipzig, Leipzig, 2003, p. 90, nos. 22, 23. The half-shadowed leaves on the latter, which features gilt rims, is particularly close.