Spoon — Möllendorff service, Meissen, ca. 1761
Record status
Individual type · partial
Period
ca. 1761
Spoon in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (museum number C.255C-1921), made in Meissen, dated ca. 1761, attributed to Karl Jacob Christian Klipfel. The museum's brief description reads: Silver spoon with porcelain handle, part of a dinner service (Möllendorf service), handle of hard-paste porcelain with relief decoration and painted in enamels and gilt, made by Meissen porcelain factory, Germany, ca.
1761. Museum description: Spoon with hard-paste porcelain handle, silver shaft and bowl. Decorated on the handle with panels containing musical instruments and flowers in low relief within gilt rococo borders, the interspaces filled with scale pattern in orange and gold; in the middle, on each side, a spray of flowers. The museum records it as Hard-paste porcelain with relief decoration, painted in enamels and gilt, measuring Length 210 mm.
These details come from the museum's own record; how far this object represents a wider collectible type has not yet been independently verified.
Evidence at a glance
- Linked sources
- 1
- Photograph views
- 1
- Catalogue references
- 0
Counts describe this entry’s documentation, not authenticity, rarity or completeness. Photographs may show one specimen; check each caption and licence.
Historical context
This piece is from a dinner service made at the Meissen porcelain factory in Saxony, Germany, for Frederick the Great of Prussia around 1761. Frederick the Great had visited Meissen several times, placed orders with the factory, received gifts of Meissen porcelain from Augustus III, the Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, and had plans to establish his own rival factory at Berlin before his Prussian forces occupied Saxony for the second time in 1756. Frederick ordered several table services from Meissen during the Prussian occupation of Saxony in the early 1760s. These were intended for his personal use, and he directed and oversaw their design. Artistically this service of 1761, now known as the Möllendorf Service, is the most important. Many of the tableware shapes and the low relief moulded decoration of the Möllendorf Service were repeated from an earlier service of 1760, which was decorated at Frederick’s order with the same floral cartouches enclosing musical instruments and emblems of war. The handles on the tureen covers of both services were modelled either as Minerva, symbolizing the intelligent conduct of war and wise governance in peacetime, or as nymphs with flowers, fruit, corn or pitchers of wine. This earlier service was in turn inspired by another one, made for Count Bruhl, Prime Minister of Saxony, in 1742. Frederick stipulated in 1761 that his new service should be painted in the combination of the special red enamel and gold reserved at Meissen ‘for the…
Physical characteristics
- Material
- hard paste porcelain
- Dimensions
- Length 210 mm
Technical characteristics
- Technique
- Hard-paste porcelain with relief decoration, painted in enamels and gilt
- Maker recorded
- Karl Jacob Christian Klipfel
- Place recorded
- Meissen
Design
- Inscriptions recorded
- Berlin hallmark, bear; 'WH'; 'FW' in script
Identification
- Museum object name
- Spoon
- Museum object number
- C.255C-1921
- Museum system number
- O1139454
Catalogue references
No catalogue numbers recorded. Numbers are only published once transcribed from a verified edition of a standard catalogue — they are never inferred.
Research required
- Research required: confirm the wider type, maker and catalogue references against a specialist reference.