A Meissen porcelain cup and saucer with "hausmaler" decor
Cup with prunus sprig relief decor and matching saucer; decorated with two birds, flowers and nymphs on the saucer. The inner rims with characteristic gilt lace borders. Blue crossed swords mark, dreher's mark 2. With a minute restored rim chip to the saucer at 8 o'clock. H cup 4.6, D saucer 13.2 cm.
The porcelain Meissen, around 1740, the decor attributed to Franz Ferdinand Meyer Pressnitz/Prísecnice
Franz Ferdiand Meyer or Mayer from Pressnitz in Bohemia - present day Prísecnice in the Czech Republic - was one of the most well known painters of white Meissen porcelain. He is identifiable through a square Meissen porcelain plaque signed by the artist and dated "15. Juny 1752". The plaque, housed in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London (Inv. no. C.117-1937), depicts a family tree of the imperial couple and their five children with a space left empty for the sixth child "in Spe.". This signed and dated panel provides us with insights into his skill as an enameller and miniaturist on porcelain and has formed the basis for all further attributions. Meyer probably drew inspiration for his designs from the engravings of the Augsburg artist Johannes Esaias Nilson (1721 - 88).
Provenance
Collection of Dr. Annedore Müller-Hofstede.
Literature
For more on Franz Ferdiand Meyer or Mayer see Pazaurek, Deutsche Fayence- und Porzellan-Hausmaler, vol. 2, Leipzig 1925/Reprint Stuttgart 1971, p. 318 ff.