- Museum number
- 1939,0302.1
- Description
-
Plate; hard-paste porcelain; lobed edge; decorated on rim with stylised foliage and flowers in orange and gold in underglaze-blue ground and with four reserves decorated in orange, purple and gold with shield-like motifs; central white ground with parrot on leaf, stylised oriental flowers and vases; reverse with stylised oriental flowers in orange and underglaze-blue.
- Production date
- 1725-1730
- Dimensions
-
Diameter: 30.20 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Folnesics and Braun 1907 illustrate a dish then in the Rothberger Collection, Vienna, which is apparently the same as the British Museum example.
The dish was seized by the Gestapo from the Rothberger family in 1938 and sold in Berlin in November 1938 before it was presented to the British Museum by William King, a member of staff at the Museum. In the Report of the Spoliation Advisory Panel dated 11 June 2008 (HC 602) the claim of the heir of the Rothberger family is considered and the payment of £18,000 to the heir recommended in respect of this dish, which remains in the collection.
For a study of the Rothberger family and its collecting see C. Gschiel, U. Nimeth and L. Weidinger, 'Schneidern und Sammeln, Die Wiener Familie Rothberger', Bohlau Verlag, Vienna, Colgone and Wiemar, 2010.
A similar dish which is somewhat larger and has a shaped rim was sold at Sotheby's, Fine British and European Ceramics and Glass, 2 June 2005, lot 41; lot 30, a double-handl;ed tray, has the same type of decoration which is a variation on the theme of the Museum dish.
-
Dawson 1985
A plate in the same series from the Blohm Collection was sold at Christie's, 3 December 1984, lot 95. Other examples are in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg (illus. G. W. Ware, 'German and Austrian Porcelain', Frankfurt am Main, n.d. (c. 1953), fig. 53), the Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna (see W. Mrazek and W. Neuwirth, 'Wiener Porzellan 1718-1864', n.d., exh. cat. Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, no. 70; inv. Ke 7906) and in the Musée national de Céramique, Sèvres (inv. MNC Réc. XXXXVIII; acquired 1949).
The size of this dish is technically remarkable at this early date, although the strong Oriental influence of the decoration on both sides of the piece shows that the factory had not yet achieved any artistic originality.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1939
- Acquisition notes
- Sale, Berlin, Hans W. Lange, 'Sammlung B., Wien, Die Bestaende der Firma Ziffer i.L., Berlin, Porzellan aus Sammlung R., Wien, Frankfurter und anderer Privatbezitz', 1938 18-19 November, lot 607 (estimate 150 Reichsmark). 'Sammlung R.' refers to the Rothberger collection.
This sale took place after Rothberger's home, business and possessions had been confiscated by the Nazi regime (see S. Lillie, 'Was einmal war: Handbuch der enteigneten Kunstsammlungen Wiens', Vienna, 2003, pp.991-7).
- Department
- Britain, Europe and Prehistory
- Registration number
- 1939,0302.1
