A Meissen (Marcolini) documentary pale-pink ground silhouette cup and saucer - 1807, blue crossed swords and star marks, Pressnummern and impressed letters, gilder's 115 mark to cup

Painted by Samuel Mohn, the ground of the cup reserved at the front with two conjoined gilt bands enclosing black silhouette portraits named on the underside in black script Herr u: Madame Ploss and signed Mohn, pxt. Leipzig 1807., with a high gilt loop handle, the saucer with a tooled band joining five gilt roundels enclosing silhouette portraits of the Ploß family children, each accompanied by dots referring to a key on the reverse, the central well inscribed Auch in der Eutferhung nah'-(?), the key on the saucer underside with indistinct Christian names including Lüiße grouped with a bracket and the surname Ploß, above a signiature S.Mohn.p. 1807., with broad gilt band rims (slight flaking to gilding)  - Estimate: £4,000-6,000

Provenance: R.S.-P. Collection, the printed label on the interior of the cup inscribed 847 in ink.

Notes: Samuel Mohn (1762-1815) painted on both porcelain and glass and specialised in silhouette work. The present lot was presumably part of a larger service in which cups and saucers were made for individual members of the Ploß family. See Gustav E. Pazaurek, Deutsche Fayence und Porzellan Hausmaler (Leipzig, 1925), Vol. II, p. 471, pl. 400 for a cup and saucer from the same service. Also see the signed and dated pair of Meissen silhouette cups and saucers by Mohn sold by Sotheby's Geneva on 14th November 1989, lot 82.

Christie's.  European Ceramics & Glass including the Property of a Collector. 31 March 2008, 10:30 am & 2:00 pm. 8 King Street, St. James's, London