Imperial Manufactory, Vienna 1798/99, Sorgenthal Period, consisting of: 2 pots with cover, 1 sugar bowl with cover, 2 cups with saucers, 1 oval tray, porcelain, reserve containing polychrome painted depictions: coffee pot with "F. C. Scipion nom=me Edile avant l'age", milk jug with "Generosité de Scipion", sugar bowl with tent camp and armour, cups with "Etroite liaison du jeune Scipion avec Polybe." and "Cornelie fille de Scipion promise a Gracchus.", tray with "Continence de Scipion", all (except the sugar bowl) inscribed on the bottom, chamois-coloured ground, bright and matte gold borders, partly on white ground, the pots on three small feet, angular handles, pot height 15.5 cm, 14 cm, sugar bowl height 9 cm, cup height 6 cm, saucer diameter 13.3 cm, tray 41.4 x 32.4 cm, turner no. 11 Thomas Mitterer, 26 Anton Zimmerl, 47 Mathias Schwaiger, painter no. 103 Leopold Parmann, gilding with slight losses, 1 saucer slight scuffed, (Hr)

As a result of the excavations in Pompeii under King Charles of Bourbon from 1748 onwards and the spreading of scientific research and copperplate engravings from Pompeii in Vienna, from the end of the 1780s it became fashionable for the Austrian nobility to have entire suites of rooms in their castles and palaces decorated in the antique style. For example, Loosdorf Castle in Lower Austria was largely remodelled in the antique style under the Princes of Liechtenstein, as was the Josefstadt Palace of the Princes Auersperg in 1795. The present antique-style dejeuner is precisely from this period, which is considered the most prosperous creative period for the Imperial Porcelain Manufactory in Vienna and is known as the ‘Sorgenthal period’ after the then director Conrad Sörgel von Sorgenthal. This object also joins those outstanding works of art and furnishings created during this period, culminating in the two antique-style portraits of the princesses Karoline and Hermeng of Liechtenstein executed by Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun.

We are grateful Dr. Michael Macek for his scholarly advice.