Pair of Royal Copenhagen 'Flora Danica' Porcelain Tureens with Stands

18075AA: Pair of Royal Copenhagen 'Flora Danica' Porcelain Tureens with Stands
By Royal Copenhagen (Danish, founded 1775)
Height: 26cm, diameter: 33cm

This pair of covered tureens with stands, dating from the twentieth century, forms part of the Flora Danica service, the most celebrated of all Royal Copenhagen productions. The service was first commissioned in 1790, conceived as a diplomatic gift for Empress Catherine the Great of Russia, and takes both its name and its decoration from the monumental Danish botanical encyclopaedia published from the mid-eighteenth century onwards.
Each tureen is potted in white porcelain and painted to the body with a botanical specimen faithfully copied from the plates of the original publication, executed with the scientific exactitude that has always distinguished the pattern. Rectangular gilt panels and delicate floral sprays enrich the sides, and the moulded borders are picked out in gilding. The domed covers carry naturalistically modelled handles in the form of flowering branches, and each lid is cut with a shaped notch for a serving ladle. The tureens sit on their original circular stands, each with a raised central platform within a shallow recessed border.
The underside of each lid carries two Royal Copenhagen marks together with the shape numbers and the Latin name of the plant represented, Lotus corniculatus L. (bird's-foot trefoil) on one, Veronica buxbaumii Ten. (speedwell) on the other,  the botanical inscriptions that are a hallmark of this distinguished service.
Royal Copenhagen, founded in 1775 under the patronage of the Danish royal family, remains among the foremost porcelain manufactories of Europe, and the Flora Danica service continues to be produced by hand to the present day, each piece requiring the skills of the factory's most accomplished painters.

$22,500