Model by Johann Joachim Kaendler, Meissen 1738–41
Ø 30 cm; underglaze blue crossed swords mark
Swan Service design featuring a heron with a carp in its beak; with the so-called "Kaendler's Hut" on the left; the relief modeled after the interior of a scallop shell.
Incised Mark: "2" — The discreetly incised "2" on the foot ring is a size mark indicating bowls with a diameter of approximately 30 cm. These were also referred to internally as "such bowls No. 2." The Swan Service included no fewer than five different bowl sizes:
No. 2 = 30 cm
No. 3 = 34 cm
No. 4 = 38 cm
No. 5 = 43 cm
No. 6 = 47 cm
The Swan Service Design
Kaendler's concept for the Swan Service design emerged in April 1736. He first recorded his ingenious invention in his work report (Pietsch, Work Reports, April 1736, serial no. 5):
Brühl was thrilled with the design and the sample plate, and his plan—to create a large, representative table service for himself, similar to Sulkowski—took shape. By the following month, in coordination with Count Sulkowski and Kaendler, the necessary steps had been taken. This was explicitly noted in the monthly report to the factory commission in May 1736 (Factory Archive TAa 24b fol. 147, cited in Rückert 1990, p. 267):
"If this (= Sulkowski Service) is successfully completed, a new table service of an entirely new design is requested for His Excellency, the Cabinet Minister von Brühl." (Rückert, ibid.)
The involved parties adhered to this fundamental agreement. Work on the large animal commission for the Japanese Palace was immediately and abruptly halted in May 1736 (Wittwer, p. 56 ff.) to free up the factory’s capacity for the ministers' grand commissions. The Sulkowski Service was completed by fall 1737, and work on Brühl's service began immediately afterward.
Kaendler started modeling the large bowls relatively early during his off-hours. The five different sizes were created between April and July 1738, as he noted in a summary work report (Factory Archive Aa I Ab 11, fol. 168, cited in Pietsch 2000, no. 28; not in Pietsch Work Reports 2002 nor in Rafael):
"Five bowls, from No. 2 to No. 6, by decreasing size, shaped like a natural shell, containing water with two finely crafted swans swimming among reeds, along with a heron holding a fish in its beak, and another flying above the water, for His Excellency the Imperial Count von Brühl."
The entire production period for Count Brühl's large table, dessert, and breakfast service, originally consisting of about 3,000 pieces, spanned from 1737 to 1741. The creation period of our bowl can be more precisely determined: it could not have been made before 1738. In the above-cited work report, Kaendler explicitly mentions for the first time the fish held in the heron’s beak on the left side of the design. As shown by the sample plate Kaendler created in 1737, which was once in our possession, this fish was absent in the first draft (Langeloh 2019, no. 121, p. 658 ff.).
Another detail further narrows down the creation date of our bowl. In January 1738, Kaendler modified the shell shape (not the carved relief parts of the design), depicting the interior rather than the exterior of the scallop shell that served as his model. (We owe this insight to Prof. Ulrich Doering, Lüneburg.)
This change was based on Kaendler's nature studies in January 1738. During a three-day stay in Dresden, he "sketched and closely examined various rare shells in the Natural History Cabinet to make the aforementioned (Swan) Service as naturalistic as possible." (Goder 1985, p. 1875).
Kaendler's work reports from January 1738 support this, noting:
"For the large service, a soup plate in the shape of a shell was made..." (serial no. 1)
"Furthermore, an ordinary plate, which is not as deep as the former [...]. These plates [the soup plate and the ordinary one, our note] have also been modified regarding the shell so that there are now two types." (serial no. 3)
The "two types" clearly refer to the difference between the inner and outer walls of the scallop shell. In all Swan Service pieces made before January 1738, cross grooves intersect the radial shell ribs on the rim—these were modeled after the exterior of the scallop shell. These cross grooves are absent in our bowl, indicating it was modeled after the interior and thus created after January 1738 (see Langeloh 2019, p. 663).
When the so-called "Kaendler's Fisherman's Hut," visible near the heron's head on our example, became part of the Swan Service decor is still unknown, as Kaendler left no notes about it—but it certainly dates to this phase as well (since it is also missing from the early design of the sample plate). The specific features of our bowl suggest it originates from Kaendler's experimental phase in the early months of 1738.
The "design of entirely new fashion" captivates with the completely white, sculptural surface of the plate's well, left untouched by Kaendler. The rim is decorated with the alliance coat of arms of Count Brühl and his wife, Countess Kolowrat-Krakovský, featuring a finely serrated gold edge and Indian flowers.
Kaendler drew inspiration for the relief decoration from engravings by Wenzel Hollar (1607–1677), published in 1700 by Johann Leonhard Buggel in Nuremberg (Exhibition Catalog 2010, p. 47 and fn. 61; Siegfried Ducret, Weltkunst no. 6/1963, March 15, p. 13; Cassidy-Geiger in Keramos 119/1988, pp. 64–68; Pietsch 2000, p. 47). Kaendler’s sketch for this design has been preserved in the factory archive (see Pietsch 2000, p. 48, fig. 38; Dr. Willi Goder, porcelain painter and director of historical research at the State Porcelain Manufactory Meissen, in Weltkunst no. 13/1985, July 1, p. 1875).
The program underlying the entire service is based on glorifying the Germanic origin of the name "Brühl" = "wet, overgrown place" (German Dictionary).
Comparative Pieces:
See Pietsch, Ulrich (former Director of the Dresden Porcelain Collection at the Zwinger): Swan Service: Meissen Porcelain for Heinrich Count von Brühl (1700–1763), Leipzig 2000, cat. no. 26, p. 157, among others:
