A rare blue Berlin KPM porcelain coffee service made for the Prussian court
Model no. 16. Comprising a coffee pot, teapot, tea caddy and sugar box (all pieces with lids), cream pourer, a quatrefoil dish, slop bowl, five coffee cups, four tea cups and 15 saucers. All pieces finely decorated with blue bouquets and gilt rims. Minor restorations. H coffee pot 23 cm, D slop bowl 15 cm.
C. 1764.
Although the Wegely manufactory had previous good experiences with the production of underglaze blue pigment, KPM at first had some difficulties with the mixture for their blue enamel. This service is an early and ambitious example of the use of blue enamel at KPM. The technical developments made during the production of the service for Breslau city palace in the years 1767 – 1768 were so far advanced that the pigment used for the scale pattern borders even satisfied the king's high standards.
Provenance
West German private collection.
Lempertz Berlin auction 1127 on 6th April 2019, lot 35.
Private collection, Berlin.
Literature
A dish with “blue enamel flowers“ is mentioned in an invoice from 26.7.1764 in Lenz, 1913 (reprint), pl. 20, illus. 84. In the archival table on p. 17 it is described as follows, "I dergleichen (complett Café Service) mit Zieraten und blauen Blumen und Goldener Mosaique", without mentioning the benefactor, so presumably not made for use at court.