A Meissen porcelain barrel-shaped silver-mounted box and cover and a quatrefoil 'Red Dragon' pattern dish, the porcelain circa 1735, the silver mounts, Paris, 1732-1738

Garden Party, Rouillac, Château d'Artigny, 19 June 2022, lot 41

This model of a barrel-shaped box and cover appears to be unrecorded although Meissen did produce porcelain spirit barrels or coffee kegs, made as single pieces without a cover and usually fitted with a spigot and with a stopper modelled as a bacchic putto finial. That model, of which our example may be a forerunner, was created by J.J. Kändler after August 1738, and the figural stopper in April 1739, when it is mentioned in Kändler’s work notes. The model was usually accompanied by an elaborate figural stand an example of which, painted with the arms of Count Brühl, is illustrated in U. Pietsch and C. Banz (eds.), Triumph der blauen Schwerter, Dresden, 2010, no. 172.

The ‘Red Dragon’ pattern was based on a Japanese original and may have been produced at Meissen as early as 1729 for pieces ordered by the Paris merchant, Rudolph Lemaire. Lemaire intended to pass the Meissen wares off as the more expensive Asian porcelain originals but when the plot was discovered, the porcelain that he had ordered was confiscated and moved to the Japanese Palace. Augustus the Strong is believed to have chosen the pattern for the sole use of the Court shortly before his death on 1 February 1733. At the beginning of November 1734 his successor, Augustus III, chose the 'Red Dragon' pattern to decorate the first Dresden court service to be made at Meissen. The first of many deliveries followed in 1735, with further deliveries throughout the 18th and 19th centuries. For an in-depth discussion of the origins and history of the 'Red Dragon' service, see Julia Weber, Meissener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern, vol. 2, Munich, 2013, pp. 246-254.

The unusual ensemble of a Meissen Kakiemon-decorated barrel box with a Paris silver mount and a ‘Red Dragon’ pattern dish together with a fitted leather case was almost certainly created by one of the enterprising Parisian marchand-merciers who strove to create ever more enticing objects for their noble clientele. In the 1730s, porcelain was a highly fashionable, luxury item and Kakiemon or Eastern-inspired decoration considered exotic and desirable. The marchand-mercier Jean Charles Huet visited the Meissen factory premises regularly in the 1730s and 1740s, and was an intermediary in the delivery, in March 1737, of a gift of a Meissen tea, coffee and chocolate service from August III, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, to Marie Leszczynska, Queen of France. Other marchand-merciers apparently placed orders from afar, via watercolours and drawings variously inscribed with their names. The gilt fleur de lys on the leather case housing the porcelain suggest an association with the French royal family or a gift, possibly intended for a royal recipient.