Meissen

Second slice from Ducret collection plus other sources achieve high prices in Zurich

The 650-lot auction at Quinn’s Auction Galleries in Falls Church, Virginia, on January 30 features items from several local properties.

The rules of kriegsspiel (war game), popular at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries, were partly based on the much older game of chess. Typically, kriegsspiel was played across three boards, with players only knowing the position of their own pieces and an umpire officiating.

Joseph Fröhlich (1694-1757) was a well-known figure at the Saxon court from the late 1720s onwards. He was appointed court jester to Augustus the Strong in 1727 and held the position for three decades – perfect for a man whose family name translates as ‘happy’.

A 176-lot group of Meissen and other European porcelain from the collection of Dr Siegfried Ducret, consigned from the estate of Rosmarie Schmidt-Ducret, will be offered at auction by Koller in Zurich on September 24.

This Meissen porcelain teapot from c.1722 will feature in the sale series to be held by Hargesheimer of Dusseldorf from September 10-12.

There is absolutely no way that one can describe the decoration of a late 19th century Meissen ewer sold by Wendl (21% buyer’s premium) in Rudolstadt as restrained.

The sale of the Müller-Frei collection of paintings and decorative arts held by Koller (25% buyer’s premium) in Zurich last month included two early 18th century Meissen figure groups that outstripped their estimates.

International bidders competed online and by phone against the UK trade and collectors for a group of 18th century Meissen figures offered at Adam Partridge (20% buyer’s premium) in Macclesfield.

Freeman’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) of Philadelphia opened its latest Design sale with a Meissen Whiplash dinner service designed in 1903-4 by Henry Van de Velde, the Belgian Art Nouveau architect and designer.

By tradition, Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700-63), chief minister and favourite to Augustus III, was a man famed for his fashion sense. His tailor was thus an important part of his entourage.

Having been heavily criticised for its antiquated designs at the World Exhibition of 1900 in Paris, the Meissen porcelain factory commissioned avant-garde designers to produce more vibrant pieces.

The most expensive piece in Sotheby’s Arnhold sale was a lot that made a dramatic increase on its $4000-6000 estimate. This 7½in (19.5cm) diameter blue and white saucer dish (below) was an early example of blue and white Meissen from c.1721-22 that had Japanese Palace inventory marks.

High selling rates at two American salerooms show how the market can absorb traditional ceramics in volume when estimates are realistic

Early-18th century porcelain scent bottles from Chelsea and the St James’s factory have been the object of increasing interest and value in recent years. Some high-flying examples emerged in the sales in New York.

A feast of English and Continental ceramics will be laid on in the Big Apple next week to tempt enthusiasts for classic 18th and 19th century pottery and porcelain from two of the major factories of western Europe.

A collection of Meissen figures, many by Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-75) and his assistants, met keen interest at Adam Partridge’s (20% buyer’s premium) auction.

While Sotheby’s and Christie’s no longer hold regular dedicated auctions of European ceramics, they still cater for elements of this market in their main centres worldwide via series of mixed-discipline traditional decorative arts auctions.