An early Meissen saucer, circa 1718. Photo: Bonhams.

Decorated in the workshop of Georg Funcke, Dresden, in gilding, lustre and enamels with a flowering branch in the well and an iron-red loop and cross border to the rim, the reverse spirally moulded with flutes heightened in gilding and lustre below a border of flowers and leaves, 12cm diam. (very minor wear). Estimate £3,000 - 5,000 (€3,700 - 6,200)

Provenance: Stanley Ungar Collection, Christie's New York, 23 April 1998, lot 9 (part)

A double-handled beaker and saucer from the same service is in the British Museum, Franks Collection (A. Dawson, Documentary Continental Ceramics from the British Museum, exhibition catalogue, International Ceramics Fair and Seminar (1985). no. 5). Another beaker and saucer in the Dresden Porcelain Collection is missing since 1945 (E. Zimmermann, Die Erfindung und Frühzeit des Meissner Porzellans (1908), ill. 92).

A similar double-handled beaker and saucer from a different service is in the National Museum of Wales, Cardiff (R. Charles, Continental Porcelain of the Eighteenth Century (1964), ill. 8b). Two double-handled beakers from a third service are in the Staatliches Museum, Schwerin (formerly in the C.H. Fischer Collection, Dresden, no. 29), and in the Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Leipzig, respectively (C. Boltz, Steinzeug und Porzellane der Böttgerperiode, in Keramos 167/168 (April 2000), ills. 37-40). A beaker from the latter service was in the collection of F.C. Witte, Rostock (Lepke's Berlin, 20-21 October 1912, lot 72, formerly C.H. Fischer Collection, Dresden, no. 30?). Four beakers belonging to the third service are in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Weimar, Schloss Belvedere (inv. nos. A1117-11120). A fourth type of beaker, similar to the preceding but with straight flutes, is in the Malcolm Gutter Collection, San Francisco (published by N. Zumbulyadis, '...und thuet einen Graußamen Knal'..., in Keramos 222 (2013), ill. 6.

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