A Meissen Böttger stoneware octagonal sugar box and cover, circa 1710-13. Photo Bonhams

The exterior polished, the cover moulded with an unpolished stiff-leaf border, 11.2cm across; 7.5cm high (small rim section restuck) (2). Lot 3. Estimate: £10,000 - 15,000 / €12,000 - 18,000 / US$ 16,000 - 24,000

Provenance: Dr. Marcel Nyffeler Collection, Zürich, sold by Christie's London, 9 June 1986, lot 198

Exhibited: Zürich, Kunsthaus, Schönheit des 18. Jahrhunderts, 10 September-6 November 1955, cat. no. P207

The form is listed in the 1711 inventory of the Meissen manufactory; a closely similar polished sugar box in the Dresden porcelain collection, together with a Plaue stoneware example of the same form, are published in Johann Friedrich Böttger zum 300. Geburtstag (1982), pl. I/65. Another polished example is in the Ludwig Collection, Bamberg, R. Hanemann (pub.), Goldchinesen und Indianische Blumen (2010), no. 13, where the model is attributed to Johann Jacob Irminger.

Bonhams. 23 May 2012 10:30 a.m. London, New Bond Street. Fine Meissen Porcelain from a Private Collection.