porcelain, 31 items: 1 coffee jug with cover height 21 cm, 1 milk jug with cover height 17.5 cm, 1 hot water jug with cover height 15.5 cm, 1 teapot with cover height 14 cm, 1 sugar bowl with cover height 11 cm, 1 tea caddy with cover height 15.5 cm, 1 bowl height 8.5 cm, Ø 20.5 cm, 12 coffee cups with 12 saucers height 5.8 cm, Ø 13 cm, bodies in a classicising style, each individual item exhibiting individual floral décor, jugs, sugar bowl and cups with burnished gilt cylindrical bodies, tea caddy with rectangular body, bowl with bulbous body, jugs with two-part rounded, angular handles with leaf terminals, each with three small feet with leaf volutes, short or tubular spouts decorated with burnished gilt-painted foliate and floral tendrils in relief on a matt gilt ground, covers with pine cone finials set on acanthus leaf wreaths painted en grisaille, gilt undulating bands and buds in relief with foliate friezes on matt gilt bands, borders with geometric motifs painted en grisaille, blue bands to exterior of all parts, between which gilt rosettes and small knobs painted en grisaille on a light blue ground, burnished gilt lace borders with buds in relief with swags of leafy stems on matt gilt bands, finely painted colourful floral garlands hanging from small knobs, below which large floral bouquets, cups with angular handles, foliate and console terminals, 12 cups and bowl with immaculate gilding to interior, some restoration to tea caddy cover and minimal restoration to rim of 1 cup, wooden case covered with red Morocco leather, gold embossed dedication, “L’AMITÉ RECONNOISSANTE” [“in grateful friendship”], with borders of foliate and floral festoons, vases and rosettes, to one side undulating bands of laurel leaf stems, brass fittings, 2 carrying handles, lock, key missing, with 2 hooks, to right of lock fragment of a seal, interior with individual slots precisely sized for all separate items, ecru-coloured silk lining with traces of use, 8 circular delicately upholstered silk cushions for the saucers, a semi-spherical cushion to sit in the bowl to take the tea caddy, case 72 x 49.5 x 17.5 cm, Vienna, Imperial Manufactory, year marks 1788–1799, Sorgenthal era, various turner nos, painter no. 6 Anton Friedl 1795–1848, who received award 1824 (Ru)

As well as the Imperial family and Austrian archdukes, its customers included the Princes Metternich, Kaunitz, Trauttmansdorff, Rasumofsky, Liechtenstein, Lobkowitz, Lichnowsky, Auersperg und Colloredo, the Counts Tatischeff, Esterházy, Hardenberg, Czernin, Batthyány, Chotek, Waldstein, Eltz, Festetics and many others. Demand from other countries increased too, in spite of constant wars. Goods were sold to Turkey, Switzerland, Italy, Russia, Germany and France.

A unique service executed with technical and artistic perfection of exquisite, museum-standard quality in excellent condition. Coffee jug, hot water jug and sugar bowl with year mark 1799, turner no. 26 Anton Zimmerl 1783–1812; milk jug 1797, turner no. 12 Franz Schwaiger 1785–1804; teapot 1799, turner no. 27 Anton Kaltenbeck 1788–1812; tea caddy 1788, blue mark on an unglazed base, turner P Georg Ebert 1783–1819; bowl 1799, turner no. 3 Franz Anton Shaller 1880–1800; cups 1799, turner no. 47 Mathias Schwaiger 1792–1832; saucers 1799, turner no. 39 Ferdinand Ebenberger 1783–1804;
lit.: W. Mrazek, W. Neuwirth, Wiener Porzellan 1718–1864, Vienna, MAK 1970, p. 36, p. 177, private ownership, cat. no. 689, ill. plate 93;
W. Neuwirth, Porzellanmaler-Lexikon, 1840–1914, vol. I, p. 285. Anton Friedl d. 1854 in Vienna, flower and design painter, painter no. 6, worked at the Viennese Porcelain Manufactory from 1795 until circa 1850;
lit.: J. Folnesics, Dr. E. Braun, Geschichte der K. K. Wiener Porzellan-Manufaktur, Vienna 1907, p. 120 “...Anton Friedl excelled at flower and design painting due to his diligence and skill ... from 1795 onwards awarded many prizes”, p. 215 list of colour and gilt design painters;

exhibitions: Österreichisches Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna 1970, Ausstellung Wiener Porzellan, cat. no. 689, ill. plate 93;
Wiener Porzellanmanufaktur Augarten, Wien 1991–1992;

provenance: Viennese private collection