Details
Finely painted to simulate banded stone, the tray painted to the center with a life-size replica of the Gemma Augustea cameo, its underside painted with the identifying inscription 'Apothéose d'Auguste. / Sardoine-Onyx. Camée. / Grandeur naturelle.', comprising:
An oval tray
A small coffee-pot and cover
A hot-milk jug and cover
Two cups and saucers
1612 in. (41.9 cm.) wide, the tray
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Lot Essay

The exceptionally large and impressive Roman Gemma Augustea cameo, dating to the early decades of the 1st century, was carved from a single piece of double-layered onyx and depicts the glorification of the Emperor Augustus and his successor, Tiberius. It entered Hapsburg ownership during the reign of Emperor Rudolf II (r. 1576-1612), and today remains at Vienna's Kunsthistorisches Museum (inv. no. Antikensammlung, IXa 79). Its life-size reproduction on the present porcelain déjeuner reflects the Vienna manufactory's interest in the Antique, which led it to produce works with detailed topographical painting after ancient ruins, as well as reproductions of famous Roman mosaics.

The painstaking faux-agate painting on the déjeuner embodies a further trend at the manufactory, that of faux-mineral painting and imitation of precious and semiprecious stones. For two teacups and saucers, circa 1800, painted with alternating panels of colored marble and with grisaille marble to their interiors, see S.K. Tabakoff, The Viennese Porcelain at Palazzo Pitti, Florence, 2002, pp. 139 and 142, nos. 75 and 77. For two cups and saucers dated 1803 and 1804, one painted to simulate lapis lazuli and the other painted as amethyst, see E. Sturm-Bednarczyk and C. Jobst, Viennese Porcelain of the Neo-Classical Period: The Conrad von Sorgenthal Era, 1784-1805, Vienna, 2000, pp. 142-142, nos. 158-159.

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