QIANLONG PERIOD, CIRCA 1750-56

The service was probably commissioned by the Prussian East India Company as a gift for King Frederick II, who founded the Company in 1750. By 1756 the Company had been disbanded, as a result of the Seven Years’ War. In 1755, one of the ships sailing back from China for the Company, the Prinz von Preussen, which was believed to have been carrying this service, ran aground on the East Friesan island of Borkum, but was refloated, and the service made it back to Emden where the Company was based, although with many breakages. About 153 pieces from this service were acquired in the late 19th Century by the Hohenzollernmuseum. Examples from this services can also be found in the British Museum, Victoria and Albert Museum, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York and in the Royal Museums of Art and History, Brussels, amongst others.