Large plate from the v. Hennicke service

The large plate with the size mark ‘///’ in the stand rim corresponds to 33 cm and is rare. We have only been able to find two other plates, but with the press number ‘21’ (= Johann Gottlieb Geitner): Bonhams 10.4.2004 no. 18; Sotheby's 25.11.1997 no. 73.

The Table Service of Hennicke (ennobled since 1728) was created between 1739–40; the dessert service between 1740–42, with supplementary deliveries featuring the improved coat of arms:

For the Baron (since February 1741), see, for example, the cloche mentioned by Kaendler in his work report from November 1741.
For the Imperial Count of Hennicke (since September 1745), see, for example, the large table centerpiece in the Hamburg Museum of Arts and Crafts (Lessmann 2006, p. 52).
The service has so far been dated too early, to 1735–38, in Meissen literature (Weber II, p. 386).

The “Actual Privy Councillor and Conference Minister” Johann Christian von Hennicke was entrusted, at the instigation of Count Brühl, on August 21, 1739, with the office of “Directorate Vice in Porcelain Manufacture Affairs” (Weber, ibid.).

The order for the service must have been placed shortly thereafter. Already in November of the same year, Kaendler reports the repair of a bowl belonging to "His Excellency, the Privy Councillor de Henick" (Pietsch, Work Reports, November 1739, serial no. 9).

In fact, service pieces must have been ordered by the end of August 1739—as evidenced, among others, by our bowl with the press mark (see above). The press marks were replaced by new press numbers at the end of August 1739 (Rückert, Keramos 151, p. 67). It can therefore be assumed that the first parts of the service, to which our bowl belongs, were produced as early as August 1739 (immediately after Hennicke assumed his new office) or shortly thereafter and were taken from storage for painting.

Von Hennicke chose for his service the twelve-lobed old Ausschnitt form developed by Kaendler in 1734, which he had complemented with a Famille Verte landscape medallion, scattered flowers, and twigs in the Kakiemon style in the center of the mirror. This decoration was explicitly exempted by Augustus III from his stringent sales ban on all Kakiemon porcelains, which he had imposed after the exposure of the Count Hoym/Lemaire affair.

The large bowl shape with the size mark “///” on the foot ring measures 33 cm and is rare. We have only found two other plates, however, with the press number “21” (= Johann Gottlieb Geitner): Bonhams, April 10, 2004, No. 18; Sotheby’s, November 25, 1997, No. 73. This excludes the special form of a bowl, likely also part of the service, with relief flowers on the rim (Ø 34.4 cm, Sotheby’s New York, September 26, 1989, No. 110, and October 19/20, 1994, No. 256).

The next larger bowl, with a diameter of 38 cm (size designation No. 4), was in the following collections: Hofmeister II Nos. 350, 351, with the same press mark as ours; Nyffeler Collection (Christie’s, June 9, 1986, No. 119, press number 20); Van Slyke Collection (Sotheby’s New York, September 26, 1989, No. 110, press mark Grund, sen.).

The largest bowl, measuring 45.5 cm, was auctioned at the 162nd Ahlden Auction on May 9, 2015, with the press mark of Johann George Grund (Rückert, 1990, p. 109), who later had stamp number 27.

The longitudinal oval so-called roasting dish from the Spitzner Collection, now part of the Porcelain Collection in the Zwinger, Dresden, which was always the largest plate within a service, has a length of 46 cm despite the broken handles.