A BÖTTGER TEABOWL AND SAUCER

It still remains unclear as to whether decoration of this type was executed independently of the factory at Bayreuth by Danhöffer or by Busch, or if it was produced at the factory, which the existence of a sake-bottle (decorated in this style) bearing a Japanese Palace inventory number (N=36= W) would suggest (see R. Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, Munich, 1966, no. 126). The theory of factory decoration is compounded by the existence of a beaker from the Earls of Bessborough Collection (decorated in a similar style but in blue and iron-red) which is inscribed G.L 1728 30. Dec:, see Kate Foster Davson, 'Ein bezeichneter Schokoladenbecher - Malersignatur oder Widmung?', Keramos, No. 136, 1992, pp. 6-8. For a full discussion of this subject, see B. Beaucamp-Markowsky, Europäisches Porzellan, Kataloge des Kunstgewerbemuseums Köln, Vol. VI, pp. 89-93. Also see S. Ducret, 'Johann Philipp Danhöffer oder Christian Daniel Busch?', Keramos, No. 17, 1962, pp. 19-26, where he illustrates a very similar teabowl and saucer and fig 4, a detail of Arnold Montanus's engraving published in Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen der Oost-Indische Maetschappy in't Vereenigde Nederland, aen de Kaisaren van Japan (Amsterdam, 1669), which is the source for the figure on the present teabowl.