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Tankard and cover

Made at: Meissen Manufactory (Germany)
German
About 1730–35
Object Place: Europe, Germany

Medium/Technique Hard-paste porcelain with colored enamel and gilded decoration
Dimensions 22.2 x 16.2 cm (8 3/4 x 6 3/8 in.)
Credit Line Gift of Rita and Frits Markus
Accession Number1983.613
NOT ON VIEW
CollectionsEurope
ClassificationsCeramicsPorcelain

DescriptionThe thrown tankard is pear-shaped, with a wide mouth, and has a ridged, flared foot ring, an ear-shaped handle, and a domed cover. The body of the tankard and the cover are painted with a deep yellow ground, with a single, white quatrefoil panel reserved on each. The reserve on the tankard is painted with a large spray of peonies and bamboo in the Kakiemon style in sea-green, iron-red, gray blue, and gold. Above, there is a flying crane, painted in gray-blue, yellow, black, and gold, and below, to the left is a standing crane, painted in two tones of iron-red with a gold crest. The panel on the cover is decorated with a spray of flowers in the same palette, and a trail of similar flowers is painted on the spine of the white handle. The cover is attached with a gilt-metal hinged mount that is fitted to the rim and cover with an engraved dentated edge. The box hinge is bolted to the porcelain cover through a leaf-shaped plaque and attached to an engraved and chased sleeve on the handle. The thumbpiece is in the form of a pierced and bisected circle.
Marks (1) on base, in blue enamel: crossed swords
Provenance1931, Erich von Goldschmidt-Rothschild (b. 1894 - d. 1987), Berlin; March 23–25, 1931, Goldschmidt-Rothschild sale, Ball-Graupe, Berlin, lot 578; by 1949, his sister-in-law, Renée Lambert de Becker-Remy (b. 1899 - d. 1987), Brussels, Rome, and New York [see note 1]. 1958, with Rosenberg and Stiebel, New York [see note 2]; July 21, 1958, sold by Rosenberg and Stiebel to Rita and Frits Markus, Chatham, MA, and New York; 1983, gift of Rita and Frits Markus to the MFA. (Accession Date: January 18, 1984)

NOTES:
[1] Renée Lambert was the daughter of Lucie de Rothschild Lambert. Her sister, Betty Lambert, married Rudolf von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Erich's brother. How she acquired this object -- whether she purchased it at the 1931 sale, or whether it went unsold and was passed on to her -- has not been determined. She lent it to the exhibition "Masterpieces of European Porcelain" (Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1949), cat. no. 312. [2] Members of the Rothschild family consigned many works of art to Rosenberg and Stiebel in the 1940s and 1950s. It is quite possible that Renée Lambert sold this object to the gallery, although this has not been established.