MEISSEN SILVER-MOUNTED TWO-HANDLED ECUELLE, COVER AND STAND

MEISSEN SILVER-MOUNTED TWO-HANDLED ECUELLE, COVER AND STAND

Decorated in the Seuter workshop, probably by Abraham Seuter
The porcelain circa 1720, the mounts and decoration circa 1725-30
The ecuelle 10.7 cm high. The stand 18.4 cm diam.
The stand bearing the incised ‘X’ mark for .D. Rehschuh,
The silver mounts impressed ‘ES’ for the goldsmith Elias Adam and a pinecone for Augsburg

Painted in tones of grey with red highlights, within blackened silver cartouches. The main scene of the bowl is loosely based on an engraving by Thomasin fil. after Antoine Watteau’s “Coquettes qui pour voir galans au rendez-vous“. The other scenes on the bowl and the lid are presumably adapted from similar sources.

Coquettes qui pour voir galans by H.S. Thomasin after Antoine Watteau

The decoration on this stand and ecuelle are examples of the Watteau-type decoration that Ducret attributed to Abraham Seuter and said of them: ‘In terms of finesse, color combination and painting technique, they surpass anything that has ever appeared in the hausmaler category’. [1]

While being of ‘Watteau type’, the scene of the stand is based on a painting by Nicolas Lancret “Dans cette aimable solitude… Leur discours seroit plus tendre”, after an engraving by Charles-Nicolas Cochin II.

‘Dans cette aimable solitude’.., Nicolas Lancret, Fitzwilliam Museum

The decoration on this ecuelle and stand is very close in style, quality and execution to the decoration of the coffeepot signed by Abraham Seuter and is almost certainly by his hand. [2]

This set looks like it has been designed at Meissen to be mounted and decorated in Augsburg. The form is not one that we have seen elsewhere, and it would not serve its function properly if not mounted with silver handles. This suggests that the porcelain, decoration, and mounts were produced and applied at the same time and that it was produced within the period that Meissen and the Seuter workshop were engaged in a formal relationship with each other. The coffeepot signed by Abraham Seuter was probably decorated and mounted later, as the signatures seem to begin with the end of the formal relationship with Meissen as we know that the Meissen factory disapproved of individuals signing their work. This suggests that this piece was produced towards the end of the period of formal relationship with Meissen around 1725-30.

Condition:
Some retouching to solver strapwork

Provenance:
The Ringier Collection, Christie’s, London, 11 December 2007, lot 81

Literature:

Manners 2024
‘E & H Manners, ‘Decorators on Ceramics and Glass’, 2024, no. 29

References:

Ducret 1971
Ducret, Siegfried, Meissner Porzellan bemalt in Augsburg, 1718 bis um 1750, (Klinkhardt & Biermann, Braunschweig, 1971), vol II, ill. 198

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[1] See Ducret 1971, vol. II, p. 20.
[2] See Mischell 1976.

 

Price: £32,000.00