The present box is one of four of the same form which are almost certainly Royal, each featuring finely painted views of Saxon Royal palaces and territories, jewelled thumbpieces and richly-decorated interiors.1 Two of the boxes are decorated with AR monograms on the interior, which ‘would certainly have been intended for Augustus III personally’,2 and the present box and another almost identical box are both decorated with fleurs-de-lys and laurels to the interior, indicating that they were made for members of the Bourbon family of France. The other box with this decoration to the interior has a thumbpiece set with garnets and rubies rather than the diamonds found on the present lot, but it is otherwise almost identical to the present lot.3 The description of a box which matches the present lot is recorded in the inventory of Augustus III’s daughter, Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony (or Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, as she came to be known), who married Louis, Dauphin of France in 1747 (and was subsequently the mother of kings Louis XVI, Louis XVIII and Charles X of France).
The inventory of the Dauphine’s possessions taken after her premature death in 1767 records ‘Une autre idem quarrée de porcelain de Saxe montée en or avec les vues de Dresde, l’ouverture garnie de diamants’ (another [porcelain box] ditto square, of Saxon porcelain mounted in gold with views of Dresden, the opening garnished with diamonds).4 The existence of a Meissen porcelain box which matches this 1767 description so closely, and which also has the embellishment of the Bourbon fleurs-de-lys on the interior, suggests that the present box almost certainly once belonged to Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony, the Dauphine. The other almost identical box with the fleurs-de-lys to the interior (see note 3 below) has a symmetrical thumbpiece set with rubies and emeralds, so it cannot have been the Dauphine’s box.
Unfortunately, the destruction and dispersal of objects during the French Revolution in combination with the looting of the archives in Dresden by the Prussians during the Seven Year’s War make it difficult to piece together the circumstances or components of gifts of Meissen porcelain to the French Royal Court.5 ‘At least three gifts of Meissen porcelain were probably sent from the Saxon Court to the French royal family in 1747’, the year Maria Josepha of Saxony married the Dauphin, but unfortunately ‘in each of these three instances there is a considerable gap in our knowledge of the circumstances of the gift or precisely what was given’.6
In July 1746 the Dauphin’s wife, Marie-Thérèse of Spain, died after giving birth to a daughter. As the Dauphin was the only heir to Louis XV, it was considered essential that he should re-marry to provide a male heir to the throne. By October 1746 the French king had decided that Maria Josepha of Saxony was the best candidate, as this match would serve the dual purpose of being beneficial politically and the Saxon princess was also considered to be the healthier of the two candidates proposed (the other leading candidates were Savoy princesses). Although a wedding gift from Augustus III would inevitably have included Meissen porcelain, there is little evidence as to what it contained.7 Surviving correspondence reveals that in November 1747 a gift of Meissen porcelain arrived for the Dauphin and Dauphine from Saxony which included vases and a clock-case painted in camaïeu vert with figures of ‘Watteau’ type, which were greatly praised (and which were influential at Vincennes),8 but specific information relating to gifts of Meissen porcelain sent to the newly married royal couple earlier in the year remain illusive.
As there are two almost identical boxes with fleur-de-lys to the interior, which indicates that they are for the use of members of the Bourbon family, the boxes must surely have been made for the Dauphin and the Dauphine, most probably on the occasion of their wedding, or perhaps at a slightly later date. The wedding between Maria Josepha and the Dauphin was announced on 26th November 1746, a few months later they were married in proxy in Dresden on 10th January, and plans were made so that Maria Josepha would arrive at Versailles by the start of Lent in February 1747. If the boxes did travel with Maria Josepha when she left Saxony for France, it would have given the manufactory a small window of time to create them.9 In the absence of documentary evidence, the possibility that the boxes may have been made to celebrate their tenth wedding anniversary in 1757 cannot be ruled out, as was the case with the porcelain gift from Augustus III to another one of his daughters,10 but the symmetrical thumbpiece of the Christie’s Geneva box is late baroque in feel (unlike its companion, the present lot, which has a rococo thumbpiece), suggesting an earlier, rather than later, date.
Tantalisingly, as part of a legacy to ‘Prince Xavier’, the Dauphine left ‘une boëte de porcelaine où sont représentées les vues de Dresde et autres vues’ (a porcelain box with views of Dresden and other views).11 The document does not specify which Prince Xavier, but given that her surviving son Louis-Stanislas-Xavier (who later became King Louis XVIII) was also left a different legacy in the same document,12 the recipient of the box must have been her favourite brother, Franz-Xavier-Ludwig-Albert (or François-Xavier-Louis-Albert), Prince of Saxony (1730-1806). Although we cannot be absolutely certain that it was the present lot which was left to her brother, it seems almost certain. Prince Xavier spent much time in France under the assumed title comte de Lusace, becoming lieutenant general of the King’s armies in 1758. In 1769, two years after his sister’s death, he moved to France, where he stayed until the Revolution.13
The box which is most similar to the Bourbon family boxes (the present lot and its almost identical companion sold by Christie’s Geneva) is Augustus III’s box which was recently sold from the Helmut Joseph Collection (cited below in note 1), as the topographical views match those on the Bourbon boxes. The exterior of the cover on the Helmut Joseph Collection box and the exterior of the covers on the Bourbon boxes are all painted with the same view of Dresden seen from the right bank of the Elbe beneath the Augustus Bridge. This view is taken from a 1748-49 engraving by Bernardo Bellotto (1721-80) of his 1748 painting (which is now in the Gemäldegalerie in Dresden), and it shows the Kreuzkirche on the right which was destroyed in 1760 during the Seven Year’s War.14 Augustus III’s other box, now in the Rijksmuseum (see note 1 below), shows a different view of Dresden featuring the Hofkirche, which is also taken from a print by Bellotto. The interior of the cover on the Bourbon boxes and both of Augustus III’s boxes are all painted with a view of Warsaw with the Vistula seen from the suburb of Praga. This view is taken from the 1656 print by Erik J. Dahlberg.15 The front is painted with a view of Schloss Hubertusburg; one side of the box is painted with Friedrichsburg at Gross-Sedlitz and the other side is painted with Schloss Pillnitz after a print 1726 print by Alexander Thiele.16 It is not certain what the view of the reverse represents, although Beaucamp-Markowsky suggests that it is most probably the Renaissance hunting lodge at Wermsdorf, near Hubertusburg.17 The underside is painted with Schloss Moritzburg.
Only three other boxes painted with similar views of Saxon Royal palaces and territories are known, but none of these have a richly decorated interior and there is nothing to indicate that they are royal. One of the three is also different in feel and is of a slightly different form.18
1. A box with the AR monogram to the interior, indicating that it was for Augustus III’s personal use, with the same view on the cover exterior as the present lot, and also with a jewelled mount, was in the Helmut Joseph Collection, sold by Bonhams on 5 July 2011, lot 16 (also see Barbara Beaucamp-Markowsky, Collection of 18 Century Porcelain Boxes on loan to the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 1988, pp. 76-79). A second box with a different view of Dresden on the exterior of the cover (but otherwise with the same views), with a jewelled thumbpiece and painted with the AR monogram on the interior is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, see Abraham L. den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2000, pp. 327-329.
2. Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. Abraham L. den Blaauwen, ibid., Amsterdam, 2000, p. 327.
3. This box was sold anonymously by Christie's Geneva on 11 May 1981, lot 210, see John Herbert (Ed.), Christie’s Review of the season, 1981, p. 365. It is also cited by Barbara Beaucamp-Markowsky, Collection of 18th Century Porcelain Boxes, Rijksmuseum Exhibition Catalogue, Amsterdam, 1988, p. 79 and Barbara Beaucamp-Markowsky, Boîtes en Porcelaine des manufactures européennes au 18e siècle, Fribourg, 1985, p. 157, and by Abraham L. den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2000, p. 327.
4. The inventory was published by Germain Bapst, Inventaire de Marie-Josèphe de Saxe, Dauphine de France, Paris, 1883, pp. 141-142.
5. For the circumstances leading up to the marriage and beyond, and an attempt to piece together various diplomatic porcelain gifts sent from Saxony to France, see Selma Schwartz and Jeffrey Munger, ‘Gifts of Meissen Porcelain to the French Court, 1728-50’ in Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (Ed.), Fragile Diplomacy, The Bard Graduate Center, New York, November 2007 – February 2008 Exhibition Catalogue, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 147-164.
6. Schwartz and Munger, ibid., 2007, p. 159. In addition to the porcelain decorated in green which arrived in November 1747 it has been suggested that a garniture of vases may have formed part of Princess Maria Josepha of Saxony’s dowry in 1747, although little is known with certainty (see Schwartz and Munger, ibid., pp. 159-160), and a service was ordered for Louis XV via the marchand mercier Giles Bazin in June 1747 (see pp. 160-161).
7. In the 19th century, Johann Graesse, Director of the Grüne Gewelbe in Dresden, replied to a request from Germain Bapst for information, describing a tea-service with the French Royal arms which he associates with a garniture of vases in the Japanese Palace which were traditionally thought to have been produced as part of Maria Josepha of Saxony’s dowry on her marriage to the Dauphin, but which had apparently found their way back to Dresden after her death in 1767. The letter was published by Bapst in 1883 as a supporting document (a date is not given), see Bapst, ibid., 1883, pp. 247-249. Also see Jeffrey Munger in Schwartz and Munger, ibid., 2007, pp. 158-160.
8. This gift is brilliantly pieced together from correspondence of the time. The relevant excerpts from Maurice de Saxe’s letter to his brother, Augustus III, and a letter from the Saxon minister to France, Johann Adolf Count von Loss, to Count Brühl are published by Schwartz and Munger, ibid., 2007, p. 161.
9. Kändler’s Work Report records that in December 1746 and January 1747 he was working on portraits of the Dauphin and future Dauphine. In December 1746: ‘Den Durchl. Printzen den Dauphin [Ludwig, 1729-1765, Dauphin von Frankreich] in brust Stück geharnischt auf die Königl. Ceremoniell Tafel poußiret’, and in January 1747: ‘Das Hohe Bildnis Ihrer Königl. Hoheiten der Dauphine [Maria Josepha, 1731-1767, und Ludwig, Dauphin von Frankreich, 1729-1765, Vermählung p.p. Dresden, 10 Januar 1747, pers. Versailles, 9 Februar 1747] auf die Vermählungs Tafel poußiret [bossiert = modelliert] in Brust Stück in Dero gehörigen ornat,’ cited by Ulrich Pietsch, Die Arbeitsberichte des Meissener Porzellanmodelleurs Johann Joachim Kaendler 1706-1775, Leipzig, 2002, pp. 115-116.
10. In 1747 Augustus III sent one of his other daughters, Maria Amalia of Saxony, Queen of Naples and the Two Sicilies, a porcelain toilet-service as part of a larger gift to celebrate her 10th wedding anniversary and the arrival of a long-awaited male heir. Work on the gift began in 1745, and although it was sent in 1747, it didn’t arrive until February 1748, see Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, ‘Princes and Porcelain on the Grand Tour of Italy’ in Maureen Cassidy-Geiger (Ed.), Fragile Diplomacy, The Bard Graduate Center, New York, November 2007 – February 2008 Exhibition Catalogue, New Haven and London, 2007, pp. 237-240. The Dauphine also sent porcelain to her father in Dresden. The ‘Bouquet de la Dauphine’, a large ormolu-mounted ensemble of Vincennes flowers, figures and a vase was created in 1748 and delivered to Augustus III in January the following year. It is not known if there was any political significance to the gift, or if it was simply a gift from a daughter to her father, but it was placed in Augustus’s private apartments, possibly to ensure that it was out of view from the Court, as he may have seen it as a threat to his own porcelain manufactory, Meissen. It is now in the State Collection in Dresden, see Cassidy-Geiger, ‘The Bouquet de la Dauphine: sources and influences’ in The French Porcelain Society Journal, Vol. III, 2007, p. 3. An important gift of porcelain arrived in September 1750 when an enormous Meissen porcelain mirror-frame, a matching porcelain console table and porcelain gueridons arrived at Versailles for the Dauphine. Various motivations behind the gift have been suggested. One suggestion is that they were a gift to commemorate the birth of the Dauphine’s first child in August 1750 (this seems unlikely as the mirror-frame bore the AR monogram and not the French arms); another suggestion is that they were a gift to thank the Dauphine for the ‘Bouquet de la Dauphine’, noted above. However, upon delivery to Versailles, the mirror and accompanying table and gueridons were too large to fit into the Dauphine’s apartments. Jeffrey Munger notes that neither of these suggestions can have been the motivation behind the gift, as the measurements of the relevant apartments must have been taken between 26th November 1746, when the marriage was announced, and November 1747, when the Dauphin and Dauphine moved to different apartments in Versailles, see Schwartz and Munger, ibid., 2007, pp. 163-164.
11. See Germain Bapst, ibid., 1883, p. 164.
12. As ‘Monsieur le comte de Provence’, his title at the time. Cf. Bapst, ibid., p. 161.
13. He bought the Château de Pont sur-Seine in the Champagne region in 1775. In 1790 he escaped France for Rome and his property was confiscated and sold. He lived in exile until he eventually returned to Saxony, settling in Schloss Zabeltitz. Cf. Bapst, ibid., p. 39, note 1.
14. For this print, see Stefan Kozakiewicz, Bernardo Bellotto, genannt Canaletto, Recklinghausen, 1972, 1972, Vol. 2, pp. 115-121, no. 146-150, and Abraham L. den Blaauwen, ibid., 2000, p. 328.
15. For this print, see Abraham L. den Blaauwen, ibid., 2000, p. 328.
16. Beaucamp-Markowsky, ibid., 1988, p. 79.
17. Beaucamp-Markowsky, ibid., 1988, p. 76.
18. A box with the same view of Dresden on the exterior of the cover (as the Rijksmuseum box) but without a jewelled mount and without monograms or heraldic devices on the interior was formerly in the J.F. Dickson Collection and subsequently sold from the collection of Count Thure Bonde by Sotheby’s on 8 December 1970, lot 42. In 1988 Beaucamp-Markowsky, ibid., p. 79, noted that it was on loan to the V&A Museum, London. The box was then sold in ‘The Property of the British Rail Pension Fund’ sale; Sotheby’s, Geneva, 15 May 1990, lot 8, and again by Sotheby’s, London, on 10 December 2020, lot 16. Another box with similar views but without interior decoration is in the Kunstindustrimuseet, Copenhagen, see Axel Heine, Porcelaens-tabatièren i det 18. Aarhundrede, Copenhagen, 1937, no. 74, ill. p. 69. Another box in the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellansammlung, which is of a different form and has a different feel to the painted decoration, has similar views on the exterior, although they are rendered in a different, darker, palette. The form of the box has rounded edges rather than corners and on the interior of the cover there is a portrait of a woman drinking coffee. For an illustration of this box closed see Ulrich Pietsch and Claudia Banz (Ed.), Triumph of the Blue Swords, Zwinger Exhibition Catalogue, Leipzig, 2010, p. 365, Cat. no. 456 and for an illustration of it with the cover opened see Klaus-Peter Arnold, Ulla Heise and Michael Ropers (Ed.), “Ey! Wie schmeckt der Coffee süße”, Meissener Porzellan und Graphik, Zwinger July-October 1991 Exhibition Catalogue, Dresden, 1991, p. 55, no. 47.