Lot 591
Lot 591
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PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN (LOTS 589-591)
A LARGE BERLIN (K.P.M.) PORCELAIN PLAQUE

LATE 19TH CENTURY, IMPRESSED SCEPTRE AND KPM MARK

Price Realised GBP 27,500
Estimate
GBP 15,000 - GBP 25,000
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

Price Realised GBP 27,500
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Price Realised GBP 27,500
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Details
Finely painted with an allegorical scene using elements and characters from Norse myth to represent Spring, signed in the lower left corner 'Copiert nach Prof. H. Prell von L. Scherf, the reverse inscibed in blue 'Frühling' nach Prof. H. Prell'

1914 in. (49 cm.) high; 2412 in. (62.2 cm.) wide overall
Special notice
This lot has been imported from outside of the UK for sale and placed under the Temporary Admission regime. Import VAT is payable at 5% on the hammer price. VAT at 20% will be added to the buyer’s premium but will not be shown separately on our invoice.
Specified lots (sold and unsold) marked with a filled square ( ¦ ) not collected from Christie’s, 8 King Street, London SW1Y 6QT by 5.00pm on the day of the sale will, at our option, be removed to Crozier Park Royal (details below). Christie’s will inform you if the lot has been sent offsite.If the lot is transferred to Crozier Park Royal, it will be available for collection from 12.00pm on the second business day following the sale.Please call Christie’s Client Service 24 hours in advance to book a collection time at Crozier Park Royal. All collections from Crozier Park Royal will be by pre-booked appointment only.Tel: +44 (0)20 7839 9060 Email: cscollectionsuk@christies.com.If the lot remains at Christie’s, 8 King Street, it will be available for collection on any working day (not weekends) from 9.00am to 5.00pm
Please note this lot is the property of a consumer. See H1 of the Conditions of Sale.
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Lot Essay

This lot has been in the same ownership in a Continental European Collection since it was acquired at the time of manufacture.

The scene on 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. 49.

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 for 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. 1989/k 240.

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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