Decorated with Neptune and a hippocampus amongst elaborate scroll ornament with marine trophies, The reverse with nymphs and dolphins in in a sepia monochrome.

This beaker is from one of Bottengruber’s most ambitious series, each piece decorated with an Ovidian God and their attributes. Maureen Cassidy Geiger suggests Les Douze Mois Grotesque by Jean Audran (1667 – 1756) as a likely source for the overall design; Neptune being represented in Fevrier. These were tapestry designs in which Audran was assisted by Watteau but Bottengruber might have had access to them through sheets of French-style ornament issued by publishers in Germany such as Christoph Weigel.[i]  Bottengruber was a sufficiently inventive artist to adapt the elements freely to suit his purpose.

Janvier and Fevrier from Les Douze Mois Grotesque by Jean Audran (1667 – 1756)

A beaker and saucer from the same series is in the Gardiner Museum[ii] and another in the Arnhold Collection.[iii]

Provenance:

Sir Jeffrey Tate and Klaus Kuhlemann

Literature:

Cassidy-Geiger 1998
Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, The Porcelain Decoration of Ignaz Bottengruber, Metropolitan Museum Journal 33 (1998): p. 254 fig. 37

References:

Cassidy-Geiger 1998
Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, The Porcelain Decoration of Ignaz Bottengruber, Metropolitan Museum Journal 33 (1998): 245-62.

Cassidy-Geiger 2008
Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain 1710-50 (2008)

Kisluk-Grosheide 1996
Daniëlle O. Kisluk-Grosheide, “‘Cutting up Berchems, Watteaus, and Audrans’: A Lacca Povera Secretary at The Metropolitan Museum of Art“: Metropolitan Museum Journal, v. 31 (1996)

[i] Cassidy-Geiger 1998, pp. 254- 255, figs 36 – 38. See Kisluk-Grosheide 1996 figg. 28-33 for the full series.

[ii] Described as being on Du Paquier porcelain, but presumably in fact Meissen, Böttger porcelain.https://emuseum.gardinermuseum.com/objects/1325/beaker-and-saucer

[iii] Cassidy-Geiger 2008, p. 637, no. 323

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