A BÖTTGER RED STONEWARE SAKE-FLASK AND COVER

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The red pottery produced by Böttger was tranformed by embelishments and elevated from a dull and raw substance to a refined and desirable work of art. A list of workers from 5th August 1710 records the potters and artisans, among silversmiths, goldsmiths, enamellers and painters are recorded twenty-nine glass grinders and cutters form Dresden and Bohemia. They would work on polishing, cutting and engraving the wares to give them a glazed and precious feel. Having won the favour of Augustus the Strong to produce china in January 1710, Böttger was producing wares for sale at the Leipzig Easter Fair if the same year. The addition of a dark-brown glaze as see on the present example, is most unusual and noted in contemporary notices. An advertisement in the Leipzig Zeitung of 4th May 1710 for a sale to be held at the Blauer Engel describes five types of wares including wares with decoration described thus: 'welche dunckel glasuret in solche Glasur aber künstlich geschnitten sind, das der Schnitt ihre natürliche rothe Farbe zeiget' ('which have a dark glaze which is finely cut which shows the natural red colour').

A BÖTTGER RED STONEWARE SAKE-FLASK AND COVER

CIRCA 1711-15

Details

A BÖTTGER RED STONEWARE SAKE-FLASK AND COVER
CIRCA 1711-15
Of square section, with a bulbous body and slender neck, two sides of the body applied with bouquets of flowers and two with satyr masks, the masks with large stylised scrolling horns and pendant animal pelts, on a stepped square foot, the neck with a husk border, the cover with a square section baluster finial (tip of finial lacking)
9 1/16 in. (23 cm.) high

Special Notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 15% on the buyer's premium

Lot Essay

For a white glazed sake-flask in the State Collection, Dresden (Inv-Nr. P.E. 905), of the same form with gilded bouquets and masks, see Willi Goder et al., Johann Friedrich Böttger (Leipzig, 1982), pl. 67. Both the white sake-flask and the red stoneware coffee-pot in this sale (see lot 8) have got the same moulded bouquet with a similar configuration of flowers. For two vases with similar low relief satyr masks (one, Inv-Nr. P.E. 2427, a polished red stoneware vase, the other, Inv-Nr. P.E. 1826, a white glazed vase) in the State Collection, Dresden, see Willi Goder et al., ibid., pl. 107 and pl. 180.

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