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Code: MB664
Circa 1730
Hard-paste porcelain
Height: 4 3/8 in. (11 cm.)
Marks: crossed swords in underglaze blue, dreher's mark for Andreas Schiefer
The accompanying sugar bowl to this teapot was sold at Christie’s, London, 30 September 1991, lot 194.
The particular phoenix motif painted on both sides of this teapot was repeated often on Meissen porcelain of this period, suggesting that it is was one of the manufactory’s go to stock images, originally taken from East Asian prototypes. On Meissen, the phoenix was usually placed alone as a purely decorative emblem, stripped of its traditional symbolism in Chinese mythology of femininity and grace.
A teapot of this shape is illustrated in Julia Weber, Meißener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern: Stiftung Ernst Schneider in Schloss Lustheim, vol. II, p. 159, cat. no. 129. Further examples of the phoenix motif are also illustrated (pp. 161-165, cat. nos. 131-136).