An Early Meissen Small Teapot And Cover, Circa 1715-20 | Eine frühe Meissen Teekanne mit Deckel, um

modelled by Johann Jakob Irminger, decorated in Dresden, in the workshop of Georg Funcke, the squat globular body moulded on each side in high relief with flower sprays below a border of tasseled lappets, the domed cover with three flower stems, the curved spout issuing from the top of a gaping mask, enamelled in blue, green, puce, black and yellow

Height 4 1/2 in.

11.5 cm.

Margarete Oppenheim (née Eisner, formerly Reichenheim) (1857-1935);

Involuntary estate sale of the above, Julius Böhler, Munich, May 18-22, 1936, lot 771 (illustrated plate 50);

Probably sold to Dr. Herbert Kühne, Munich for DM 170;

Ehlen Collection, Germany

 

This lot is sold pursuant to a settlement agreement between the consignor and the heirs of Margarete Oppenheim.

Literature
Horst Reber, Eine Rheinische Porzellan-Sammlung, Darmstadt, 2006, Vol. I, p. 28

Catalogue note
Before the arrival of Johann Gregorius Höroldt from Vienna in 1720, decoration of Meissen porcelains was accomplished by independent decorators attached to the Dresden Court. George Funcke supplied decorated porcelain by 1713, as referenced by Rainer Rückert, Biographische Daten der Meißener Manufakturisten des 18. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1990, p. 147, in a surviving archival letter dated June 6 1719: 'George Funcke, Goldarbeiter hat in der Königl.und Churfl.Porcellain Factur. Sechs Jahr daß Porcellain gemahlet mit allerhand bunten farben und auch Solches', [George Funcke, goldsmith, for six years has painted porcelain with all sorts of bright colors and fired them...]. George Funcke's surviving invoices are reproduced in Claus Boltz, 'Steinzeug und Porzellan der Böttgerperiode - Die Inventare und die Ostermesse des Jahres 1719', Keramos, 2000, No. 167/168, pp. 3-156.

A comparable teapot and cover modelled with smaller flower sprays decorated by Funcke is in the Ariana Museum, Geneva, illustrated in the Ariana Museum, Geneva, inv. no. AR 02562 illustrated in Roland Blaettler, Ariana Museum Geneva, 1995, p. 63.

Two further examples of the same model as the abovementioned sold at Sotheby's Olympia, June 12, 2002, lot 94 and subsequently at Bonhams London, Important Meissen Porcelain from a Private Collection, Part III, 22 July, 2020, lot 13; and most recently at Koller Zurich, 31 March, 2022, lot 1049. Two teapots in the white with similar larger sprigged floral sprays similar to those seen on the present lot are in the Dresden State Collection, inv. nos. PE 2843, 2844. A particularly close example, of the same diminutive size as the present, was in the Collection of Otto and Magdalena Blohm, illustrated in Robert Schmidt, Collection catalogue, Munich 1953, p. 32, no. 16, sold, Christie's New York, 27 June, 2005, lot 2.

Cranfield University used non-invasive X-ray fluorescence (XRF) for this lot to screen the green enamel for chromium, which was not detected, a result consistent with 18th century manufacture.
Additional Notices & Disclaimers

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