A rare early Meissen double-handled beaker and saucer, circa 1723. Photo Bonhams
Each superbly painted with chinoiserie scenes of figures of Turks and blackamoors, the beaker depicting a Turk sitting in front of a plate of shrimps, with a finely painted sky in the background, a lute player on the reverse, the saucer depicting a blackamoor kneeling on the ground presenting porcelain vessels to two Oriental ladies standing in front of him, houses and trees as a background, each within a gilt quatrelobe cartouche with Böttger lustre, edged with iron-red scrollwork, gilt border to the rims, the beaker: 7.9 cm high; the saucer: 13.2cm diam., traces of lustre marks, incised / inside footrim of saucer (2). Estimate: £25,000 - 35,000 / €31,000 - 43,000 / US$ 40,000 - 56,000. Unsold
Provenance: The Property of Mrs. R, Dreyfus, sold by Sotheby's London, 8 July 1969, lot 118 (part);
Herbert Wolfe Collection, no. 132 (acquired in the above sale)
Literature: Ulrich Pietsch / Claudia Banz, Triumph der blauen Schwerter (2010), no. 51;
Ulrich Pietsch, Passion for Meissen (2010), no. 14
Exhibited: Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Japanisches Palais, Triumph der blauen Schwerter: Meissener Porzellan für Adel und Bürgertum 1710-1815, 8 May to 29 August 2010, cat. no. 51 (part)
Bonhams. 5 Dec 2012 13:30 GMT London, New Bond Street. The Marouf Collection, Part I: highly important 18th century Meissen porcelain