porcelain, 3 parts, lid, baluster, and foot, lid and baluster each with 2 perched birds on branches with leaves, birdcage with open-work bars, each with 1 perched bird, all parts decorated with guelder roses, branches with guelder roses, height: 80 cm, minor restorations, Meissen, underglaze blue crossed swords, 2nd half 19th cent., model by Johann Joachim Kändler ca. 1760, model no. 2773 (Ru)

The above vases are based on a model by Johann Joachim Kändler. In 1741 and 1742, he modelled a series of vases for King Louis XV. Lit.: Ernst Zimmermann, Meissner Porzellan, 1926, p IX, Dresden, Staatliche Porzellan Sammlung; plate 43, “large guelder rose vase for King Louis XV; p 172 . surmounted by a relief portrait of Louis XV framed by a laurel wreath.. p 173. the whole surface covered in guelder rose décor as it had become popular during the preceding period", Lit.: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellan Sammlung, guidebook to the permanent exhibition Dresdner Zwinger, 1998, p162, ill. Two birdcage vases, height: 53 cm, Meissen ca. 1727, no mark, Johanneum no. “N=366w”; birdcage vases were already being produced at Meissen in 1727. "Along with many other replicas of Far Eastern porcelain from the collection of August the Strong, Meissen also reproduced complex forms, such as the so-called "birdcage" vases, based on Japanese originals. The chalice shaped cup was encompassed by a cage of delicate gilt metal rods around the centre of the vase body. In 1727, the manufactory inspector Johann David Reinhard announced the successful creation of 2 vases. The decorative pieces were delivered to the Japanese Palais. This was followed by the production of another 50 vases for the Porcelain Palace (Porzellanschloß)." Lit.: Triumph der blauen Schwerter, Meissener Porzellan für Adel und Bürgertum 1710- 1815, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2010: p 23 ill., 1 birdcage vase ca. 1680 Arita, Japan, 1 birdcage vase ca. 1727 Meissen, Staatl. Kunstsammlungen Dresden; p 136, ill. 1 guelder rose vase with birds ca. 1750, Schloss Lustheim, Bayer. National Museum; p 347 ill. 411, Two guelder rose vases from an epergne with birds, 1 vase with lid height: 69 cm, no mark ca. 1760, and 1 vase without lid height: 58 cm, underglaze blue crossed swords ca. 1742, both models by Johann Joachim Kändler, Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin- Brandenburg, Potsdam; In May 1739, inspired by Chinese porcelain, Kändler first covered the surface of a tea- and coffee service with small blossoms, so that it resembled a guelder rose. In 1741/1742, new floral forms were added, possibly used for the décor of lidded vases bearing the portrait of Louis XV. and August III. from the porcelain collection. (Zimmermann 1926, plate 43). Large vases are mentioned in the inventory of Frederick the Great, Dec. 1745 as “1 mantelpiece top of the largest kind with guelder rose blossoms’. Especially by candlelight, the vases appear to dissolve visually and the moulded decoration of additional blossoms and polychromed birds lends them an unprecedentedly naturalistic appearance. Guelder rose vases were exceptionally expensive and hence are only found at major aristocratic households, such as the court of the Tsar but also at the courts of German rulers. Frederick the Great developed a particular weakness for them and in 1762, ordered several epergnes for the decoration of the New Palais in Potsdam, in particular for the blue room of his own apartments there. The vases were placed on consoles between the wall panels, others on tiled stoves" Lit.: Jean Louis Sponsel, Kabinettstücke der Meissner Porzellan-Manufaktur von Johann Joachim Kändler, Leipzig 1900, p 144, A guelder rose vase with a half-length portrait of August III.;