Lot 55. A garniture of five Meissen porcelain hexagonal vases and covers, the porcelain circa 1725-28, the decoration circa 1740, blue caduceus marks to the baluster vases, blue crossed swords marks to the beaker vases, the cover of the central vase a later replacement. The central vase 143⁄8 in. (37.5 cm.) high. Price Realised GBP 137,500 (Estimate GBP 50,000 - GBP 80,000). © Christie's 2022

Comprising: a central baluster vase and a slightly smaller flanking pair, and two flared beaker vases, each painted in the manner of J.G. Höroldt with a continuous scene of chinoiserie figures, animals and beasts at various pursuits, the scenes to the baluster vases on puce scroll supports, the domed covers similarly decorated and with flattened knop finials enriched in gilding, the flared beaker vases with a bulbous section to the lower body painted with further chinoiserie figures in purpurmalerei.

Provenance: Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 29 May 1956, lot 153 (the central vase; sold without a cover).

Note: Few complete Meissen porcelain garnitures have survived from the 18th century, and most are now in public collections. The vases in the present lot were probably made in the 1720s and then held in the factory stores until they were selected to be decorated together as a garniture in the 1740s. As such, they form part of the last sustained exercise in chinoiserie decoration executed at Meissen in the style established twenty years earlier Johann Gregorius Höroldt and it is interesting to note that the scene of a figure riding an elephant appears to be derived from one of Höroldt's sketches on sheet 18 of the Schulz Codex.

A comparable assembled garniture of vases, dating to the 1730s and with AR marks, is in the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (object number 83.DE.334). Another garniture of vases with related 1740s chinoiserie decoration was sold at Christie's on 21 November 2005, lot 44. A flared beaker vase, similarly decorated but with additional gilding, was in the Hans Syz Collection, and is illustrated by Hans Syz et al., Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, Washington D.C., 1979, pp. 72-73, no. 32, and is now in the collection of the National Museum of American History, Washington D.C. (museum no. 64.429). A further flared beaker vase was sold by Bukowskis, Stockholm, on 5 June 2015, lot 1403. A further baluster vase with AR mark and comparable decoration was sold from the Sammlung Oppenheimer, Important Meissen Porcelain, at Sotheby's, New York, on 14 September 2021, lot 80.

Christie's. The Collector, 27 Jan - 10 Feb 2022