A very rare Meissen dish, circa 1727-30. Estimate £20,000 - 30,000 (€28,000 - 42,000). Photo: Bonhams.

Painted in the manner of Johann Ehrenfried Stadler, of fluted moulded shape decorated with banded hedges, sprouting bamboo, peony and a lion surrounded by birds in underglaze-blue and overglaze colours, 26cm diam, incised N=6/ W (small rim chip)

Provenance: The Royal collections of Saxony, Japanese Palace, Dresden

Notes: This plate is listed in the 1770 inventory of the Japanese Palace among four moulded dishes, of which only one is decorated with this pattern:
'Vier gemuschelte Schüßeln, davon 3 St. mit Vögeln und Blumen, 1. St. aber mit bunten Korn, Blumen und Löwen gemahle, 1 1/2 Zoll tief, 11. Zoll in Diam: No 6.' [Four moulded dishes, three of which are decorated with birds and flowers, one however is decorated with sheafs, flowers and a lion, 1 1/2 Zoll deep, 11 Zoll in diameter: No.6].

The shape and decoration of this plate are taken after a Japanese example which in itself is very rare. Only a handful of similar examples are recorded (see A. Den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum (2000), no. 168). The combination of underglaze-blue and polychrome colours is even rarer. Somewhat later examples with the same pattern using over- rather than underglaze-blue in the Rijksmuseum (op.cit.) are marked with an overglaze-blue mark, suggesting that they belong to the copies of Asian porcelain ordered by Rudolph Lemaire of 1729-31.

This earlier dish resembles the decoration on a very rare ten-sided bowl sold in these rooms (18 June 2014. lot 44), which was unmarked and entered the collection of Augustus the Strong in 1723, only to be gifted in 1725 to Vittorio Amadeo, the King of Sardinia. Several related pieces were offered in the sale of his porcelain from the estate of Umerto II, the last king of Italy (Christie's Geneva, 7 June 1968). One saucer dish in particular, lot 57, has comparable decoration. Although the decoration is only loosely described in the catalogue, it appears to have both underglaze and overglaze colours. The size is somewhat smaller and it is not of fluted shape. Another smaller related example with different decoration from the collection of the King of Sardinia (lot 53 in that sale) is now in the Arnhold Collection, New York (see M.Cassidy-Geiger, The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain (2008), cat.no. 237). Neither of these pieces have an incised Japanese Palace inventory number.

Bonham's. FINE EUROPEAN CERAMICS, 17 Jun 2015 10:30 BST . LONDON, NEW BOND STREET