Cup and saucer

The model and factory mark of this cup suggest that it was probably made between about 1825 and 1837. The form can be linked to one of two models with claw feet introduced by the Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur (KPM) about 1825.(1) Furthermore, the mark on both the cup and the saucer is the Berlin scepter in underglaze blue, which appeared in this manner until 1837 when an additional KPM or Prussian eagle began to be employed.(2) Veduta painting — the painting of topographical views of cities and towns — was an important area of porcelain production in the nineteenth century. At the Berlin porcelain factory, veduta painting reached a high point of technical and artistic achievement from 1815 to 1848. The present cup features an urban street scene with soldiers, horsemen, dogs, and civilians depicted in front of the Berlin Opera House on Unter den Linden.(3) Single cups with vedute were often intended as collectors’ items, meant for cabinet display rather than practical use.(4) These cups were frequently decorated outside the factory by independent artists known as Hausmaler and, hence, usually lack the mark of a recorded factory painter.(5)

Catalogue entry from: Eileen Sullivan. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, pp. 182-83.

NOTES:
1. Berlin – Vienna – New York. Refinement and Elegance: Early Nineteenth-Century Royal Porcelain from the Twinight Collection, New York. Exhibition, Schloss Charlottenburg, Stiftung Preussische Schlosser und Garten Berlin-Brandenburg, 28 July – 4 November 2007; Liechtenstein Museum, 16 November 2007 – 11 February 2008; The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 9 September 2008 – 19 April 2009, p. 313. Catalogue by Samuel Wittwer, with contributions by Sarah Louis Galbraith et al. Munich, 2007.
2. Beginning in 1837 a further KPM or Prussian eagle was added to the scepter as part of the factory mark. See Fay-Halle, Antoinette, and Barbara Mundt. Porcelain of the Nineteenth Century. New York, 1983, p. 283. [Translation of La porcelaine européenne au XIXe siecle. Fribourg and Paris, 1983.]
3. Although the original Opera House, designed in 1740 under Frederick the Great, was destroyed in a fire in 1843, it was rebuilt in replication of the old building on the exterior, making it difficult to distinguish between the old and new buildings in undated views. See Along the Royal Road: Berlin and Potsdam in KPM Porcelain and Painting, 1815 – 1848. Exhibition, Bard Graduate Center for Studies in the Decorative Arts, 13 October 1993 – 30 January 1994, p. 134. Organized in association with the Verwaltung der Staatlichen Schlosser und Garten Berlin. Catalogue by Ilse Baer et al. Edited by Derek E. Ostergard. New York, 1993.
4. Marton, Veljko. The Viennese Porcelain: Coffee Cups / Beˇcki porculan: Šalice za kavu. Marton Museum. Samobor, Croatia, 2007, pp. 15 – 16.
5. See Berlin – Vienna – New York 2007 – 9, p. 313.

Marking: Marks: scepter in underglaze blue (Berlin factory mark, ca. 1820 – 37) on the underside of each.

Robert Lehman, New York