Six Meissen Plates from the topographical Stadholder Service for Willem V of the Netherlands (1748-1806), Prince of Orange and Nassau, Circa 1772-1774

Stadholder Willem V, Prince of Orange and Nassau (1748-1806), The Netherlands;

William Beckford (1760-1844), Fonthill Abbey, Wiltshire,

his sale, listed in the Oak and Tapestry Dining Parlour, The Unique and Splendid Effects of Fonthill Abbey, Phillips, 1 October 1823 (Seventeenth Day) lots 762-765;

Acquired from the above sale by F. Hodges, 16 Cavendish Square, London;

Henry G. Bohn (1796-1884);

Sale, Christie’s London, 19 December 1868, lots 564-638;

Herbert M. Gutmann (1879-1942), Berlin;

His forced sale, Paul Graupe, Berlin, 12-14 April 1934, lot 357 (part);

A Silesian Collection;

Their sale, Stuttgart, F. Nagel, 12 October 1962, lot 85 d-f;

Private collection, The Netherlands;

Thence by descent;

By whom restituted to the heirs of Herbert M. Gutmann in 2024.

John Rutter, Delineations of Fonthill and Its Abbey, 1823, pp. 11, 13.

Cf. A. L. den Blaauwen, Het Meissen servies van Stadhouder Willem V The Meissen service of stadholder Willem V, Paleis Het Loo, Zolle 1993;

Cf. A. L. den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2000, pp. 344-347, cat. no. 245 F;

Cf. U. Pietsch and C. Banz, Triumph der Blauen Schwerter. Meissener Porzellan für Adel und Bürgertum 1710 - 1815, exh. cat., Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2010, p. 373, cat. nos. 470-472.

The 'Stadholder' Service, painted with titled views of the Netherlands and the Netherlands East Indies originally comprised more than four-hundred and thirty-five pieces, and was most probably presented to William V by the Dutch East India Company, of which he had been chief governor since 1766.

It was one of great monumental services produced by the factory in the latter part of the 18th century. In older literature it was thought to be from an earlier period, until it was identified by an entry in Kändler's work report for October 1772, where he notes working on the lion finial which features on a tureen from this service (den Blauwen p. 17). Kändler's assistant Carl Schönheit also refers to the lion modelling in a letter written in September 1772.

The views, Prospekte, are taken from contemporary and older 18th century engravings, and are sometimes repeated throughout the service. For example, further plates respectively showing Gezigt van ‘t Lusthuis van den Heer Generael op de weg van Jakatra, [ View of the Country House of the Governor-General on the Jakarta Road], after a drawing by Johannes Rach; and Het Huis welte Vreede von Vorentezien, [the house Welte Vreede seen from the front], also after Rach, are illustrated in den Blaauwen, 2000, pp. 245, 246, cat. nos. 245B, 245D.

The service is mentioned in John Rutter's 1823 Delineations of Fonthill and Its Abbey, as being presented in the Oak Parlour: "a very handsome room, so called from the oak with which its walls are fitted up, the deep colour of which blends finely with the dark damask blue and scarlet of the curtains, and sobered hues of the tapestry...The tables are covered with Dresden and Sevre china". More pieces from the service were displayed in the 'Western Corridor' of 'Nelson's Turret': "fitted on one side with armoires and shelves, the latter of which carry part of the fine Dresden service which is in the oak parlour".

In October 1823 it was included in the sale of William Beckford’s collection, split across four lots, and listed as:

‘A matchless and extensive dinner and desert service of the rare OLD DRESDEN PORCELANE, elaborately enamelled in views of all the principal sea ports and towns of Holland, painted expressly for the PRINCE of ORANGE […]’. 

All four lots were acquired by F. Hodges for a total of more than £336. The service remained as one for another 45 years, until in December 1868 the entire service came up for auction again, at Christie’s London and was split into 75 lots.

Auction sales

A large part of the service has been reassembled and is held by the Palace of Het Loo in the Netherlands. Pieces from the service infrequently appear at auction. Recent auction sales include two plates and two oval dishes, offered at Christie’s London, 6 July, 2016, lots 138-139; two plates, sold, Lempertz Cologne, 13 November 2020, lot 712-713; eight plates, sold, Reeman Dansie, Colchester, 27 April 2021, lots 169-176, from the collection of the late Sir Thomas Lane Devitt, 1st Bt (1839-1923), which were most likely purchased at the end of the 19th century, thence by family descent. A further nine plates and three soup plates from a private Cologne collection, sold, Van Ham, Cologne, 15 November 2023, lot 47.