This ovoid soup bowl rests on four feet with rocaille volutes. Its handles resemble the stem of a cauliflower and the grip on the top is formed by a partridge perching on a volute, surrounded by a cauliflower, an asparagus stalk and a lemon. The surface is decorated with the so-called “Gotzkowsky Relief”, a delicate relief made up of flowers, and painted with “Deutsche Blumen” (German flowers) and a few insects. The sculptural parts, such as the grip and handles, are also painted to accentuate the naturalistic effect. The soup bowl model was created in 1745 by Johann Gottlieb Ehder, an assistant to Johann Johachim Kaendler, for one of the most prestigious table services made in Meissen, namely the St Andreas Service, which was gifted to Elizabeth, Empress of Russia.¹ The model was used again, with variants, as in this case, and often decorated with beautiful flowers taken from the botanical atlases kept at the factory, such as the Phytanthoza iconographia by Johann Wilhelm Weinmann. In the early 1740s, a significant change came about in the decorative style used in Meissen and there was a progressive preference for “Deutsche Blumen”, or rather examples of flora from Europe and beyond, reproduced with the accuracy of a botanical treatise, which soon replaced the “Indianische Blumen”, or rather decoration with a few sparse, stylised flowers, deriving from Japanese porcelain, which characterised the kakiemon style. This naturalistic inclination is also clearly apparent in the representation of the insects painted next to the flowers, taken from or inspired by works such as the Archetypa by Jacob Hoefnagel. The services that featured this new decoration included the famous “Brühl’sche Allerlei” for Count von Brühl, the one for the Elector of Cologne, Clemens August, and the so-called “Ferrero Service”, made for the Savoy minister Carlo Vincenzo Ferrero, marquess of Ormea, in 1745. 

Cristina Maritano 

¹ For the history of the service, see Pietsch 2004, no. 65. For the botanical repertoires and, in general, for the sources of naturalistic decoration in Meissen, see Bodinek 2018.