Circa 1724, the porcelain Meissen or possibly Vienna (Du Paquier)
Painted in the manner of Danhöffer with Chinoiserie scenes, a band of flowering vine on the rim of the cover
3 ½ in. (8.9 cm) high, 2 ½ in. (6.4 cm) wide

PROVENANCE
With Lukacs-Donath, Rome.

LITERATURE
Cleo M. and G. Ryland Scott Jr., Antique Porcelain Digest, Newport, England, 1961, p. 188, plate 43, fig. 178.

EXIBITION
On display in the Scott-Allen Collection at The High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia from 1976 until 1996

On display in the “George Ryland Scott Collection” at The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art between June 1955 and May 1960.


The form of this sugar-box, probably based on a silver original, is typically seen in early Böttger red stoneware and porcelain, the porcelain examples often incorporating chinoiserie designs (see P026). The decoration, though similar in overall style to Höroldt and his studio is closer to a style traditionally associated with the Hausmalern J.P. Danhöffer and Christian Daniel Busch. For a discussion of the problems of attribution to these decorators, see S. Ducret, 'Johann Philipp Danhöffer oder Christian Daniel Busch?', Keramos, no. 17 (1962), pp. 19-26. See also the example from A Highly Important Private Collection of Meissen and Continental Ceramics, Christie’s, London, 11 December 2007, lot 27.

NOTES BY CLEO M. AND G. RYLAND SCOTT, JR IN THE LATE 1950’S
This extremely rare sugar box was purchased in Europe in 1950. We purchased it, together with a du Paquier sugar box, from Lukas-Donath, an antique dealer at 103 Via Veneto, Rome.

This box, like the other one, is not marked. There were only two European factories in addition to Meissen who produced such articles around this Period. These factories were du Paquier 1713 and Venice 1719 to 1720. Neither of these factories marked their products.

du Paquier had no mark until the factory became the Royal Vienna factory in 1744. The factory at Venice was started by a Meissen workman, who first fled to du Paquier in 1718, only to leave there and go to Venice in 1710. This man was Christoph Conrad Hungar. He was among other things noted for his gold work.

Two Venetian goldsmiths, the Vezze brothers, who had become rich and had bought into nobility, put up the money. From 1720 to 1725 the porcelain was not marked. From 1725 to 1740 it was marked with a letter or abbreviation for Vezzi.

As stated above, neither sugar box E-33 or E-105(P064) can be mistaken for Meissen, although the shape of the sugar boxes is similar to those first made at Meissen by Bottger, and later by Herold, for the first three or four years after he came to Meissen in 1720.

This sugar box can be almost certainly ascribed to the Venice factory, because first of the gold decoration. Hunger was a gold specialist and the owners of the Venice Factory were also goldsmiths. The box is decorated with a predominance of iron red and gold. This was typical of Venice during the Period 1720 to 1725.

Hanover p. 356 says: The Porcelain is "more glassy than contemporary Meissen", again, "the rest of the coloring is a trifle lighter and paler". Both of the above points are true of this box. The color, other than the red, is a very pale green. Again Hanover says: "Nevertheless, we think we may venture to note, as characteristic of Venetian baroque design in gold in the style of Herold, that they are, as a rule, lightly outlined with iron red."

See also p. 355 for a similar sugar box. The design here has the crude little chinoiserie figures, the Chinese rocks and garden and foliage all in a baroque style. Aside from the pale green, the designs are entirely in iron red and gold.

Chaffers Marks and Monograms p. 453 says, "We must place as Venice pieces having: Chinese figures and decoration's in geometrical patterns especially in Venetian red whicb pervades all the decorations."

Litchfield in his guide to collectors, says, p. 370 and 371: “The decoration is in pure Italian taste, sometimes after the manner of brocades with graceful flowing shrubs—executed in Venetian or, as it is more generally called, "Pompeian red" on white ground." Again, the decoration of cups and saucers is mostly in quaint Oriental style, with a somewhat plentiful use of a peculiar red in the coloring."

From the above authorities it will be seen that we have no hesitation in saying this Sugar Box is early Venice.

Needless to say, it is an extremely rare and valuable specimen.