CIRCA 1778, UNDERGLAZE BLUE SCEPTRE

Details

A Berlin Royal armorial dessert-plate from the Grand Duke Paul service
Circa 1778, underglaze blue sceptre
The centre painted with the coat-of arms, a double-headed crowned eagle holding two oval shields within a pierced basketweave border enriched in gilding and hexafoil gilt line rim (some slight flaking to gilt rim)
9 7/8 in. (25 cm.) wide

Literature

Erich Köllmann and Margarete Jarchow, op. cit. (Munich, 1987), Vol. II, p. 449, fig. 291a.

Special notice

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

Lot Essay

Paul Petrovich (1754-1801), was the son of Tsar Peter III and Catherine The Great. His first wife, Wilhelmina Natalia, died in 1776 and in the same year he married Sophia Maria, daughter of Friedrich Eugene, Duke of Württemberg. The two shields on the plate do not represent either of these marriages, they represent the House of Romanov-Holstein-Gottorp; the right-hand shield bears the arms of the Dukes of Holstein-Gottorp. Catherine The Great's maternal grandfather was Christian Augustus, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp and her husband's father was Karl Friedrich, Duke of Holstein-Gottorp. Paul succeeded his mother in 1796 becoming Tsar Paul I. An unstable dipsomaniac, he dug up his murdered father's remains and placed them on the throne so that he would not have to succeed his mother directly. His mental health caused him to be considered a potential loose canon, and in 1801 he was strangled with his son's consent.

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