A MEISSEN PORCELAIN PLAQUE, DECORATED BY FRANZ FERDINAND MAYER

A MEISSEN PORCELAIN PLAQUE, DECORATED BY FRANZ FERDINAND MAYER

Meissen porcelain, decorated in 1756
Inscribed in iron-red to the reverse:
‘franciscus ferdinando Maÿer/oel u: Potzlin Mahler in/Presnitz verfertiget. Ano. 1756.’,
13.5 cm square

Depicting the Flagellation of Christ, following an engraving after Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino within an uncharacteristically simple gilt border. This plaque is painted with exceptional quality and care. Interestingly Franz Ferdinand describes himself here in his signature as a painter in oil and porcelain, emphasising his status as an artist.

The Flagellation of Christ, Engraved by Aegidius Sadeler II after Giuseppe Cesari d’Arpino, 1593

The only other known square plaque by Franz Ferdinand Mayer is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, painted with portraits of the von Kayser family of Pressnitz.

Inscribed to the reverse: ‘Francisicus Ferdi: Mayer. Pinxit d. 15 Juny.1752’ (Victoria & Albert Museum, C.117-1937)

The workshop run by the Mayers, a father and son working in Pressnitz, Bohemia, was one of the last and most prolific of the major German hausmaler. [1]. There is a distinctive body of work in their style and palette, often with particularly elaborate gilt borders, encompassing different qualities and hands suggesting a large workshop. The few known signed pieces are by the Mayers themselves, the earliest dated piece, being signed by the father F. Mayer in 1747.

Signed by F. Mayer, the father, and dated 1747 [2]

Mayer, died in 1751 at which point his son, Franz Ferdinand Mayer took over. [3] The signed and dated pieces range up to 1766. A contemporary record notes that ‘the painter Mayer’s house was burned down along with three of his neighbours after being struck by lightning on 27 June 1776. [4] It is probable that the workshop ended with this incident if it had not already. There are no dated pieces after this point.

Footnotes:
[1] See Honey 1954, p. 157.
[2] Illustrated in Pazaurek, pl. 29.
[3] For a good summary of the Mayers and other hausmaler see Kuhn 2021.
[4] Pazaurek 1925, vol 1 pp. 318-319.

Condition:
Good Condition

Provenance:
Property of An Important European Collection, Sotheby’s, 13 November 2020, lot 68

References:

Honey 1954
W.B. Honey, Dresden China: An Introduction to the Study of Meissen Porcelain, (Faber and Faber, 1954)

Pazaurek 1925
Pazaurek, Gustav E., Deutsche Fayence-und Porzellan Hausmaler, Vol 1 (Leipzig, 1925)

Kuhn 2021
Sebastian Kuhn, ‘The Hausmaler’: Independent decorators of the Eighteenth Century, lecture given to the Oxford Ceramic Group, 21 March 2021

Literature:

Manners 2024
E & H Manners, ‘Decorators of Ceramics and Glass, 2024, no. 42 

 

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