A very rare Meissen beaker and saucer, circa 1721-22. Photo Bonhams

Each painted with a chinoiserie scene within a gilt quatrelobe scrollwork cartouche enclosing Böttger lustre and edged with iron-red foliate scrollwork, the beaker depicting a figure drinking tea and on the reverse, a landscape vignette with a mythical beast, bird and insect, the saucer depicting Oriental figures around a table with various objects, gilt line borders to rims, the beaker: 7.5cm high; the saucer: 13.1cm diam., incised / inside footrim of saucer (beaker restored) (2). Sold for £17,500

Literature: Ulrich Pietsch, Passion for Meissen (2010), no. 9

Note: A beaker from the same service with a chinoiserie scene depicting a lute-player seated at a table, and a dragon on the reverse, is in the Ernst Schneider Collection, Schloss Lustheim, inv. no. ES 271 (A. Schommers / M. Grigat-Hunger, Meißener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts (2004), no. 29). Another beaker from the service is in the Marouf Collection (no. 8). The chinoiserie scenes belong to the earliest decorations created by Höroldt, recorded in the Schulz Codex, plates 22 and 109. The scene on the saucer, included on pl. 22 of the Schulz Codex, also appears on a saucer from the early tea and coffee service in Schloss Favorite painted by J.G. Höroldt (published by Ulrike Grimm, Favorite, das Porzellanschloss der Sybilla Augusta von Baden-Baden (2010), p. 113, no. 93).

Bonhams. 5 Dec 2012 13:30 GMT London, New Bond Street. The Marouf Collection, Part I: highly important 18th century Meissen porcelain