three-piece lidded tureen with corrugated walls, saucer and lid with sculptural handle in the shape of tendrils, on each piece three dragons turning in a circle, flowers and alternating Indian flower branches of pomegranates and cherry blossoms, porcelain, polychromed and gilt in overglaze paint, height 12.5 and diameter 22 cm, underglaze Mercury staff mark, minimal abrasion of paint and chipping to the rim of the tureen, (GO)

Literature:
Eikelmann, Renate (ed.). Meißner Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern, Munich 2013, vol. II, cat. 318.
exhib. cat.: Frühes Meissner Porzellan. Kostbarkeiten aus deutschen Privatsammlungen, Munich 1997, cat. 83.

The motif of the spinning dragon is not only taken from the Chinese iconography of the celestial dragon, but is an exact borrowing from imported Japanese Kakiemon porcelains. East Asian decorations were exactly copied by the Meissen Manufactory and used as an exact imitation but also for the creative variation and composition of individual motifs.
This piece with the dragon motif and its corrugated shape is related to a group of three similarly decorated and ribbed porcelains that have survived. These pieces also bear the Mercury rod mark and, as Renate Eikelmann assumes, are associated with porcelains with East Asian decorations originally made for Count Carl Heinrich von Hoym and the French merchant Rudolphe Lemaire. Around 1730, Lemaire ordered exact copies of Chinese and Japanese porcelains in Meissen. With the support of Hoym, Lemaire signed an extensive contract with the manufactory for porcelain, especially with Kakiemon decoration, which was in great demand on the French market. Indeed, these unbranded or Asian pseudo-branded pieces sold very well as seemingly Asian originals. Following the order of Elector Augustus the Strong to mark all the manufactory's porcelains in underglaze colour to proudly identify them as Saxon originals, however, Hoym and Lemaire now had the porcelains ordered for the French market branded with marks on the glaze rather than under the glaze. This made it easy to remove the sword mark with acid or to grind it off. These pieces could now be successfully sold as apparently Asian originals at high prices in France. When this became known, on the one hand, there was a scandal that resulted in the arrest of Hoym and Lemaire. But this scandal led in further consequence to the recognition of the Saxon manufactory on the European market, since their products were now comparable in quality or even indistinguishable from the Asian originals.