A MEISSEN PORCELAIN ROYAL ARMORIAL DISH FROM THE CORONATION SERVICE

This dish is from the important Royal service which later became known (in the 19th century) as the 'Coronation Service'. According to Ulrich Pietsch, the service was first used on 17th January 1734 in Kraków, on the occasion of the coronation of Augustus III, who succeeded his father Augustus 'the Strong' as King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. Pietsch suggests that the porcelain service was probably displayed on a buffet behind the coronation table where the new king and his courtiers would probably have been eating off silver.1 The service was moved to the Japanese Palace in Dresden later that year, and according to the delivery specification it comprised of 77 pieces. By the time the 1770 inventory of the Japanese Palace had been taken, one plate had been broken and three tureens were missing.2

1. Ulrich Pietsch, Early Meissen Porcelain, The Wark Collection from The Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens, London, 2011, p. 459.
2. Claus Bolz, 'Japanisches Palais-Inventar 1770 und Turmzimmer-Inventar 1769', in Keramos No. 153, July 1996, p. 91.