Pair of Berlin Covered Sorbet Jars or Coolers
A rare and magnificent pair of Berlin Ice-Pails, Covers and Liners on triangular stands.
Circa 1820
Printed iron-red eagle and K.P.M. marks, blue sceptre marks, one ice-pail with pale-brown O and incised triangle, the other ice-pail and the stands with iron-red triangle marks.
The ice-pails composed of four parts – the vessel proper, liner, cover and stand. The cylindrical vessels mounted on three scrolled feet, standing on a triangular, fluted base with truncated angles. The covers curved concavely with gilt foliage on a pink ground, and knobs in the form of pine-cones. The stands, feet and edges of the cylinders are decorated with burnished and matt gilding with key-pattern and classical ornamentation.
The stands also with gilt foliage on a pink ground. The gilt borders to the liners with burnished foliage on a matt ground.
The cylindrical vessels painted with continuous panoramic scenes of numerous figures skating and sledging in river landscapes with windmills, a tavern, horsemen, dogs and trees, between gilt bands engraved with overlapping leaves.
13½ in. (34.3 cm) high overall. Pails (with covers) 11½ in (29.2 cm) high, the stands 7½ in (19 cm) wide.
The continuous landscape decoration is of a quality of invention and execution without parallel at the Berlin factory. Snow and skating scenes are extremely rare.
Two ice-pails of this shape in the Hermitage, St. Petersburg are illustrated by Köllman/Jarchow op.cit. (1987), p. 459, pl. 306; another pair are part of the Wellington service at Apsley House, London. See: The Prussian Service, The Duke of Wellington’s Berlin Dinner Service by Winfried Baer & Ilse Baer, p.49, pl. 1, p.72 and p.73. Ill. 14 & 15 & 16; p.78, pl.7.
Item No. 480