Description:
Dish, Kangxi c.1700, from the collection of Augustus the Strong. The rim with unusual continuous floral decoration depicting the passion fruit (with blooms, buds and a fruit in cross-section) after a botanical print; the plant known in Europe since the early 17th century and sometimes associated with the suffering of Christ. The wreath and flower in the center almost certainly copy a different source. According to Christiaan Jorg (Oriental Porcelain ... from the Boymans-van Beuningen Museum) this is a ‘rare type of export porcelain, almost unknown in other collections’. Here, however, with Johanneum mark N.505. Two rim hairlines sealed . and virtually invisible; tiny chips filled. (And another, with similar minor repairs). August II (1670–1733), Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, was possessed of a legendary “maladie de porcelaine; ” the king, who is better known as Augustus the Strong, had by 1719 amassed more than twenty thousand pieces of Chinese and Japanese porcelain for the decoration of the Japanese Palace, the pleasure palace on the banks of the Elbe River that he acquired to showcase his vast holdings in Dutch-style porcelain rooms. Ten years later, the palace was rebuilt and extended to create a new set of state apartments where specially commissioned porcelain from the royal Meissen manufactory would reign supreme. Plans for the furnishing of the new building were abandoned by his son, however, who succeeded his father on the electoral throne of Poland in 1734. The porcelain collection moved into the Johanneum in 1876. The porcelain largely survived World War II thanks to evacuation, and moved into its current home in the south part of the Zwinger in 1962. Some of the pieces of porcelain from the original Japanese palace was distributed and sold. This dish is from the Collection of Augustus the Strong, decorated in underglaze blue enamel; it depicts a passion fruit; the design is based on an unknown botanical print source, c. 1700; engraved on the back of the plate is the Johanneum mark: "N.505.", Condition: two hairline sealed and virtually invisible, tiny chips filled.
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https://museums.fivecolleges.edu/detail.php?t=objects&type=ext&id_number=HD+2012.33.1 |
