Meissen, first half of the 1740s
L. 14.2 cm / W. 10.0 cm (with lid and mount) / H. 5.7 cm / Gilt silver mount / Unmarked
Provenance
The box was painted by Johann George Heintze. The exceptional quality of the fine stipple painting, the variety of different scenes, and the rich gold ornamentation are characteristic of Heintze’s hand. Rückert (1990, p. 155) writes: "He paints battle scenes, landscapes, Watteau-style decorations, engraves gold ornaments, paints hunts (especially around 1745), maritime scenes, and also sketches designs onto wares (thus laying out the decoration for painters under his supervision and correcting it afterward)."
The latter might apply to the smaller scenes in the gold cartouches on our box.
The vibrant, expressive purple and the opulent gold decoration, underlaid with brown, are particularly striking features of this object—both hallmarks of Heintze’s style. According to his petition of 24 May 1740, Heintze developed his own gold decorations and an improved purple enamel. On 22 June 1740, he was officially permitted to prepare the new color for trial, since the previously used purple had suddenly begun to "turn out badly" (Walcha, p. 34; Rückert 1990, p. 155).
Otto Walcha was the first to comprehensively highlight Heintze’s significance in Keramikfreunde der Schweiz (see above). The sources he cites underline the importance of purple painting, including the preparation of the color itself, in Heintze’s work. The purple, which was prepared based on gold, was not only a costly pigment but also particularly well-suited for executing scenes with exceptional fineness.
Due to its artistic quality, this box was already recognized early on by Otto Seitler (Weltkunst, 1956, pp. 10–11). Seitler attributed it—likely incorrectly—to Johann Martin Heinrici, the later Meissen specialist for portraits and miniatures. However, Heinrici was only accepted as a painter in 1742 and was still recorded as a Watteau-style painter in 1744; therefore, he is unlikely to have painted the mature and elaborate inner lid scene and battle decorations found here.
The scenes are based on engravings by Georg Philipp Rugendas and Johann Elias Ridinger, another indication pointing to Heintze, who, since October 1740, had been in charge of the manufactory’s collection of copperplate engravings.
All this suggests that the box was created in the first half of the 1740s—a period considered the peak of Heintze’s artistic output. From 1745 onward, he was increasingly incapacitated by illness and was ultimately replaced as head of the painting department. This dating is further supported by the strong and beautiful "German flowers" on the lid, which around 1740 began to replace the previously dominant "Indian" flowers.
