LATE 19TH CENTURY, IMPRESSED SCEPTRE AND KPM MARK, INCISED 26" 16" 3/4
Important information about this lot
Price Realised GBP 25,000
Estimate
GBP 20,000 - GBP 30,000
Estimates do not reflect the final hammer price and do not include buyer's premium, any applicable taxes or artist's resale right. Please see the Conditions of Sale for full details.
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A LARGE BERLIN (K.P.M.) PORCELAIN PLAQUE
LATE 19TH CENTURY, IMPRESSED SCEPTRE AND KPM MARK, INCISED 26" 16" 3/4
This lot has been in the same ownership in a Continental European Collection since it was acquired at the time of manufacture.
The scene of this plaque is taken from the original mural painted by the German artist Hermann Prell (1854-1922), for the throne room of the then German Embassy in Rome, the Palazzo Caffarelli. It is illustrated by Franz Hermann Meissener in Hermann Prell's Wandgemalde Im Thronsaale De Deutschen Botschaft, Zu Rom Palazzo Caffarelli, Dresden, 1899, p. 53.
Hermann Prell was personally commissioned to design the murals for the throne room of the German Embassy in Rome by Kaiser Wilhelm II (1859-1941). Prell was one of the most sought after artists for large murals such as these in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. His mythological motifs were particularly popular in the Wilhelmine Empire. For the murals in the Palazzo Caffarelli, Prell decided to use the seasons as his inspiration, integrated with various characters and motifs from Norse mythology taken from the Medieval text, The Edda. Prell painted three murals for the throne room, each representing a season; Winter, Spring and Summer. Interestingly, there was no mural for Autumn.1
In 1918 at the end of the First World War, the Palazzo Cafarelli was confiscated from the Germans by the Italians and the murals were returned to Berlin. The throne room was then subsequently destroyed. The murals were returned to Berlin, where they were kept in the cellars of the Foreign Ministry on Wilhelmstrasse along with other works also returned from the Palazzo, until a decision could be made as to where to display them in order to make them accessible to the wider public. Unfortunately no decision was made, and the murals, still in the cellar, were destroyed in 1945.
A copy of the original design is held by the Museen der Stadt, Dresden, museum no. 1988/k 75.
1. The lack of an Autumn mural may be because histroically Germany did not seperate Autumn and Winter as two seperate seasons, leaving only three seasons a year. See Franz Hermann Meissener in Hermann Prell's Wandgemalde Im Thronsaale De Deutschen Botschaft, Zu Rom Palazzo Caffarelli, Dresden, 1899, p. 28.
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You have agreed to be bound by the Conditions of Sale and if your bid is successful, you are legally obliged to pay for the lot you have won. The purchase price for a successful bid will be the sum of your final bid plus a buyer’s premium, any applicable taxes and any artist resale royalty, exclusive of shipping-related expenses.
Condition report
A Christie's specialist may contact you to discuss this lot or to notify you if the condition changes prior to the sale.
The condition of lots can vary widely and the nature of the lots sold means that they are unlikely to be in a perfect condition. Lots are sold in the condition they are in at the time of sale.
In overall very good order. The back is visible for inspection but not inspected out of frame. A 1 cm crescent shaped flat chip to the edge adjacent to the top right corner. A further small shallow chip to the bottom left corner at the reverse. Both of these are very minor. The frame with some losses to the moulding. The porcelain plaque without the frame 133⁄4 in. (35 cm.) high; 265⁄8 in. (66.7 cm.) wide.
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Lot 590Sale 19968
LATE 19TH CENTURY, IMPRESSED SCEPTRE AND KPM MARK, INCISED 26" 16" 3/4A LARGE BERLIN (K.P.M.) PORCELAIN PLAQUEEstimate: GBP 20,000 - 30,000
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