A very rare early Meissen teabowl and saucer, circa 1718. Photo: Bonhams.

Each moulded with a fluted band around the footrim, painted in the workshop of Georg Funcke, Dresden, in enamels and lustre with, on the saucer, a flowering plant issuing from grass, the teabowl with a single flowering branch on each side and another in the well, the rims with an iron-red border of scallops and crosses, the saucer: 12cm diam., 2 in lustre to teabowl, I in lustre and iron-red trefoil leaf sprig to saucer (2). Estimate £15,000 - 20,000 (€19,000 - 25,000)

Provenance: Dr. Edward G. Shiffman Collection, sold Sotheby's New York, 20 October 1994, lot 204

The teapot from the same service is in the Arnhold Collection, New York (published by M. Cassidy-Geiger, The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain 1710-50 (2008), no. 112; also published by C. Boltz, Steinzeug und Porzellan der Böttgerperiode, in Keramos 167/168 (April 2000), ill. 162). Claus Boltz (ibid., p. 143) has published the invoices for enamel colours issued by Georg Funcke, which show that both red and black were introduced in 1718.

Bonhams. FINE EUROPEAN CERAMICS. London, New Bond Street, 18 Jun 2014 - http://www.bonhams.com/