A BÖTTGER RED STONEWARE OVAL SUGAR-BOX AND COVER

A sugar-box of the same form in the Wilanów Palace, Warsaw, is illustrated by Barbara Szelegejd, Red and Black Stoneware and their Imitations in the Wilanów Collection, Bielsko-Biala, 2013, pp. 155-158, no. 21. The plaster mould which was used to make sugar-boxes of this form at Meissen was catalogued in August 1711 as ‘Eine godron: Zucker Büchβe mit 4 Füβgen’ (Gadrooned sugar bowl with 4 legs). Eighty-three sugar-boxes of this type (at various stages of production) were recorded,1 and their price was 1 1⁄2 thalers.2 A partially-polished example, which was formerly in the State Porzellansammlung, Dresden, is now in Schloss Friedenstein, Gotha, see Willi Goder et al., Johann Friedrich Böttger, Die Erfindung des Europäischen Porzellans, Leipzig, 1982, fig. 100.

1. The entry is dated 3rd August 1711, and is cited by Claus Bolz, ‘Formen des Böttgersteinzeugs im Jahre 1711’, in Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz, 1982, p. 20.
2. On 28th May 1711, six pieces of this type were listed in the storeroom, each priced at 1 1⁄2 thalers, cited by Barbara Szelegejd, ibid., 2013