In our October 25-26th Fine Auction, we have on offer a fine group of European and English porcelain. Included are some charming pictorial examples with scenic and figural vignettes giving us a glimpse into the life and mores of 18th Century and early 19th Century Europe.
The earliest pieces are two Meissen cups and saucers dating from the 1740’s (Lot 485). One set has two panels showing sightseers on a road with ruins to one side, or crossing a river past rapids to the left; the other set has harbor views with ships, within shaped gilt borders.
Also on view will be a group of Sevres cups and saucers variously dating from 1755 to 1769. Included is a pair attributed to Viellard (Lot 466) each rendered with figures fishing next to ruins, the saucer of one with a youth peering over the edge of a waterfall. Another set (Lot 468), date marked 1774, with harbor views depicts two youths next to a fire pit or hauling cargo onto a ship, within oeil de perdrix borders.
The collection also has some early 19th Century examples with topographical views. This tradition of site specific architectural renderings in watercolor, print and hand-painted porcelain developed in the mid-18th Century as ever grander building schemes, both public and private, were implemented. In this vein we have a pair of Chamberlains Worcester urns and covers (Lot 517) with titled views of the royal castle Windsor seen from the Thames and Malvern showing a bucolic view of the local church nestled in the rolling hills of Worcestershire. Also we have on offer a pair of Derby shell-form cake plates, Near Newark, depicting a bridge over a stream and two men on a road to the right, and In Spain also with a bridge over a dammed torrent, farm buildings in the distance (both pairs Lot 519). The Staffordshire potteries adopted this topographical interest in their mid-19th Century transferware, of which Stair sold some attractive pieces in June of this year.
The Berlin factory also excelled in exquisitely detailed building portraits, two of which are on offer (Lot 488), showing two major structures in the Prussian capital. Die Universitat in Berlin and Das Konigh: Operhhaus U: Bluchers Stanibild. Other interesting examples of Berlin and Continental pieces are included.
In addition we have several Paris Porcelain campana-form vases, many of which have been mounted as lamps. Two pairs show interior views with figures in rather melodramatic poses. Later pictorial porcelain includes a set of twelve Sevres style cabinet plates with portraits of French court figures (Lot 482), from the collection of the Fowler Museum in Los Angeles, and a pair of plaques portraying Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Two pairs of diminutive Vienna porcelain transfer-printed urns (Lot 497) brings us up to the turn of the 20th Century.