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1 of 253523 objects
Set of covered cups and saucers c. 1725
Hard-paste porcelain | 10.2 x 10.2 cm (whole object) | RCIN 39812
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A set of four pale turquoise and white hard-paste porcelain covered cups and saucers. The cups are decorated on the front and reverse with two quatrefoil reserves depicting land/sea-scapes. The saucer displays one quatrefoil scene of a harbour. The reserve on the saucers are surrounded by a gilt arabesque/trellis border but the reserves on the cups are edged with a plain one. The gilt finials on the covers are in the form of pine cones and and the cups are finished with moulded and gilt ear handles.
As the Meissen factory grew the artists began to turn not only to Chinese precedents but to introduce European motifs of decoration – landscape and harbour scenes derived from seventeenth-century French and Dutch paintings, European flowers and hunting and genre scenes became more common. This service combines European scenes with a delicate turquoise-green ground which may have been intended to resemble Chinese celadon porcelain in its hue.
Queen Caroline led the way in the acquisition of German and Chinese porcelains but Meissen porcelain was also mentioned in the accounts of Princess Augusta. In 1755, for example, a bill was charged by John Taylor, a china and glass dealer on Pall Mall, for packing and transporting Dresden china to Kew Palace.
Text adapted from The First Georgians; Art and Monarchy 1714 – 1760, London, 2014.Provenance
Part of a similarly decorated part tea and chocolate service first recorded in the Royal Collection in 1872.
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Creator(s)
(porcelain manufacturer) -
Medium and techniques
Hard-paste porcelain
Measurements
10.2 x 10.2 cm (whole object)
Place of Production
Saxony [Germany]