A pair of oval-fitting lidded boxes (mustard pots) with polychrome bataille and chinoiseries scenes
Painted by Andreas Philipp Oettner, unknown model, Höchst 1763-66, 11 cm long, 8.9 cm high, no mark, on the lid military trophies and insignia (plastically)
Up to now the model of this Höchst pieces is unknown. The unpainted backsides and also the spoon openings in front suggest that they were used as mustard-pots being part of a table centerpiece (cabaret). The painting is by Andreas Phillip Oettner, whose presence in Höchst is provable from 1763 to 1766 (Reber in Keramos 63/1974 p. 13; Ducret I 1965 p. 283; also Flach 2005 p. 140, who limits Oettner’s stay from 1764–65).
When Oettner applied for a job in Fürstenberg (which was in 1765 while he still was in Höchst) he promoted his mastership in painting Watteau figures, landscapes and battle scenes. For the latter some Frankenthal porcelains can serve as example (Reber op. cit. fig. 46; Ducret II 1965 p. 204 fig. 234, erroneously attributed to Eisenträger, Reber a.a.O; Flach 2005 fig. 274, 275).
Battle scenes by Oettner painted in Höchst are, however, very rare, compare:
a saucer in the Sandner Collection (Metz 18.10.2003 p. 72). Its painting, however, is difficult to characterise as a genuine battle scene, as it does not contain the typical tumult.
A Höchster tea caddy (Metz 23.10.2004 no. 904) and a teapot (coll. Gerhard Kramer-Nitschmann, Mainz, Metz 3.12.2016 no. 378 = Lempertz 13.11.2015 no. 1027), both without mark, perhaps from the same service.
Apart from that, we only know the coffee and tea service to which our milk pot belongs (see the following catalogue no. 99)
The three cartouches of the second mustard pots are filled by a mixture of harbour scenes, Turqueries and Chinoiseries appearing like theatre scenes. This was exactly the world to which Oettner remained true during his whole lifetime. The face of the Chinese boy and the figure wearing a turban on the left cartouche can also be found on a coffee-pot and a saucer of another Oettner-service (ex. Col. Blohm no. 172 plate 50, today mostly in the Stout Collection, Memphis, cat. pp. 296 f. no. 288).