RARE MEISSEN ‘SWAN SERVICE’ PLATE IN KEYS SUMMER FINE SALE
An important rare documentary Meissen plate from the Swan Service modelled by Joachim Kändler will go under the hammer in Keys Fine Art Auctioneers three day Summer fine Sale from Wednesday 26th - Friday 28th July.
The Swan Service was commissioned in 1737 for the director of the Meissen factory, Count Heinrich von Bruhl, prime minister under King Augustus III, and later head of the royal porcelain manufactory.
The service took five years to complete, and numbered over 2,200 pieces – many of which were destroyed by Russian troops at the end of the Second World War.
The plate being auctioned at Keys is decorated in relief with two swans amongst bullrushes with a crane overhead, within a gilt border with Indian flowers and the arms of Bruhl and Kolowrat-Krakowska crossed swords mark to the base. It measures 23cm in diameter.
It has a pre-sale estimate of £8,000-£10,000.
Keys ceramics expert David Broom said, “The Swan Service is a spectacular testament to a bygone era in German porcelain, and could be said to be a masterpiece of German Baroque art.
“Sadly very few of the original 2,200 pieces have survived, and we expect this plate to be the subject of intense bidding from collectors.”
More details of Keys Fine Art Auctioneers Summer Fine Sale can be found at www.keysauctions.co.uk.