A Berlin KPM porcelain plate with a depiction of Russian artillery soldiers
Model no. 1113. The well decorated with a scene of four soldiers on the battlefield firing a cannon against a background of gunpowder smoke. The border painted with six Russian eagles with the shield of Saint George alternating with six lyre and cornucopia motifs. Blue sceptre mark, blue dash above, brown painter's mark, incised III. D 23.7 cm.
C. 1806.
The date ascribed to this piece is based on the two published examples from the Twinight Collection and the collection of the Dukes of Hanover that were almost certainly produced at a similar time. The décor also supports this assumption, as it shows three gunners and a sergeant of the Russian artillery whose uniforms can be dated almost exactly to between 1805 and 1807. (We would like to thank Daniel Hohrath, curator at the Bayerisches Armeemuseum, for providing information on the soldiers). What makes this particular plate so remarkable is the frieze of Russian eagles around the border. The two other plates with this décor both depict the Prussian eagle. It is therefore likely that this plate was not produced as part of a service, but as a unique work.
Provenance
Collection of Renate and Tono Dreßen.
Literature
A plate from a similar service (with Prussian and not Russian eagles along the border) from the Twinight Collection pub. in: Wittwer (ed.), Raffinesse und Eleganz, Munich 2007, no. 124. A further plate from the Prussian service auctioned by Lempertz Berlin in auction 1105 on 21st April 2018, lot 172 (formerly Sotheby´s, Hanover sale, October 2005, lot 2318).