A Berlin (Wegely) baluster metal-mounted coffee-pot and cover

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From the beginning of his reign, Frederick the Great had wanted a porcelain factory of his own to rival that of the Electors of Saxony and Kings of Poland at Meissen. During the second Silesian War, when Frederick re-took the province of Silesia from Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, he also occupied her ally Saxony. His forces marched into Dresden at the end of 1745, and at nearby Meissen the kilns were destroyed to prevent the secret of porcelain manufacture being 'stolen' by the Prussians. Frederick was still able to make off with 52 boxes of porcelain worth 42,000 Talers. In 1751 Wilhelm Kaspar Wegely, a Swiss wool merchant, offered to set up a factory in Berlin, and this was received with great enthusiasm by Frederick who provided him with privileges and premises in Neue Friedrichstrasse. Production finally began shortly after 1753 (see lots 1- 4). Frederick knew that Maria Theresa, whom he described as 'an ambitious and vindictive enemy', would not be prepared to allow Silesia to remain under Prussian control. War was looming again and Frederick decided to pre-empt Austria and France; maintaining his tactical advantage he invaded their ally Saxony before she could become a threat. He invaded on 29th August 1756, justifying the attack by claiming that the Prime Minister of Saxony, Count Brühl, had signed a treaty with the Austrians implicating Saxony in Austria's plans for an aggressive war with Prussia. His forces entered Dresden on 16th September and he had the Royal archives searched in order to find the document. Frederick had planned to send the removable models and materials from Meissen to Berlin to help with Wegely's factory, but when they arrived (Wegely arrived shortly afterwards in December), they found the kilns had once again been destroyed along with other essential apparatus. Wegely had also hoped that he would be able to poach large numbers of workers from Meissen to help him with the quality and productivity of his factory in Berlin. Frederick 'sold' the factory at Meissen to his Army Contractor, Curt Heinrich Schimmelmann, who became its 'proprietor'. Although many of its workers had already fled, the factory was re-started with the remainder, and this was made possible by Georg Michael Helbig's collaboration. Helbig had been admitted into the secret of making porcelain after he had become the Kommerzienrat of Meissen in 1749. Frederick frequently visited Meissen when the war ground to a halt during the winters. He took great interest in the workings of the factory and the technical details of producing porcelain; so much so that he made preparatory drawings for the workers to interpret. From 1760 onwards he ordered six large table services, some produced from his own drawn designs (the two best known being the Vestunen service and the service for General Möllendorff). The king was disappointed with the porcelain that Wegely had produced and he now pinned his hopes on Schimmelmann, hoping that he would be able to start a new factory in Berlin after the war. Wegely's factory went out of business in 1757, but Schimmelmann was also a disappointment to Frederick. While at the Albrechtsburg, Frederick showed some Meissen porcelain to the merchant and financier Johann Ernst Gotzkowsky, who had been, among other things, helping to find paintings for Frederick to purchase for his new picture gallery at Sanssouci. He told him that he wanted porcelain of Meissen quality to be produced in Berlin1. As a result, in 1761 Gotzkowsky bought the secret of porcelain manufacture from Ernst Heinrich Reichard (a modeller in Wegely's factory) for 4000 Talers, and founded a new factory at Mühlendamm in Berlin. At the same time, with Frederick's help, Gotzkowsky was able to poach a number of important and skilled workers from Meissen, and even managed to take the second modeller, Friedrich Elias Meyer with them to be the Modellmeister at the new Berlin factory. Gotzkowsky established a successful factory with astonishing speed and the porcelain it produced was of very high quality (see lots 7-10, 12 and 34). But unfortunately a bank in Amsterdam, in which Gotzkowsky was heavily involved, collapsed, and after only two years his factory ran into enormous financial difficulties. Bankrupt, Gotzkowsky was forced to sell his collection of Old Master pictures to Catherine the Great of Russia in 1763, and in the same year Frederick bought the factory, along with wares which had yet to be decorated, from Gotzkowsky for 225,000 thalers. By September 1764 the Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur had twelve operational kilns and 400 workers. The king took a very keen interest in all the details of the factory and was determined that it should be a financial success. He drove the factory's standards up and he ensured that he received samples of his services, closely vetting their quality. Until 1765 Kaolin had been taken from Passau, but he wanted it to be extracted from Prussian soil, so kaolin was taken from the newly conquered province of Silesia. The result was the slightly creamy looking porcelain which characterises the first phase of the Royal factory's development. In the same year he also banned all foreign imports of porcelain and forced Jewish merchants to trade in KPM porcelain. In October 1771 kaolin was found in large supply at Sennewitz and Morl which produced a whiter, colder-looking type of porcelain with fewer inconsistencies. Over the remaining years of his reign, he helped to keep the order-books full by ordering twenty-four services for friends and as diplomatic gifts, including a service for Catherine the Great of Russia (see lots 69 and 70). 1. Gotzkowsky had ordered a service from Meissen in 1743, but Frederick also showed him pieces.

A Berlin (Wegely) baluster metal-mounted coffee-pot and cover

CIRCA 1755, UNDERGLAZE BLUE W AND IMPRESSED 1 8

细节

A Berlin (Wegely) baluster metal-mounted coffee-pot and cover
Circa 1755, underglaze blue W and impressed 1 8
With scroll ear-shaped handle, painted with scattered flower-sprays, the sides each with a large loose bouquet including forget-me-nots, roses and tulips, the finial of the domed cover formed as a posy of flowers, the cover pierced for mount fixing and connected to handle with chain (finial restored, coffee-pot with restored chip and associated crack to handle, two minute chips to rim of cover)
8½ in. (21.7 cm.) high

来源

Fleischman Collection, Colmar (label with collection number 9 attached to interior of cover)

注意事项

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

拍品专文

For a coffee-pot of similar form but different finial, see Gisela Zick, Berliner Porzellan, der Manufaktur von Wilhelm Caspar Wegely 1751-1757 (Berlin 1978), p. 263, no. 268.