A Meissen armorial two-handled beaker and saucer from the Albani-Borromeo service, circa 1738-39. Photo Bonhams

Each painted with the arms, scattered flowers and gilt scrollwork borders, the beaker with a chinoiserie scene on the reverse, the interior and handles of the beaker gilt, the reverse of the saucer with sprigs of indianische Blumen, the beaker: 7.3cm high; the saucer: 12.9cm diam, crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue, impressed (unknown) Dreher's mark of an asterisk to saucer (Rückert 1996, pl. 9, no. 1) (very minor flaking to gilt rim of beaker) (2) Estimate: £6,000 - 8,000 : €7,300 - 9,700 : US$ 9,500 - 13,000

Notes: he arms are those of Carlo Albani (1688-1724) and his wife, Teresa (née Borromeo), daughter of the Viceroy of Naples, Carlo Borromeo.

Crown Prince Friedrich Christian of Saxony was a guest of Teresa Albani and her brothers-in-law, the Cardinals Annibale and Alessandro Albani, when he arrived in Rome in mid November 1738. He stayed in the Palazzo Albani on the Piazza delle Quattro Fontane (see Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, Princes and Porcelain on the Grand Tour of Italy, in Fragile Diplomacy (2008), p. 218).

Only two chocolate pots (sold Sotheby's Zürich, 22 May 1981, lot 39; and Sotheby's London, 6 June 1989, lot 171) and two other two-handled chocolate beakers and saucers (another sold by Christie's London from a Swiss private collection, 8 July 2002, lot 35; and the example from the Hoffmeister Collection, sold in these Rooms, 26 May 2010, lot 77) from this service are recorded.

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