Limited Edition Dish convolvulus with butterflies

Under the direction of Ernst August Leuteritz, who headed the manufactory's design department from 1849 to 1886, Meissen's modellers and porcelain painters focused primarily on tapping the manufactory's rich heritage. In the era of the Baroque and Rococo movements of the 18th and 19th centuries, numerous vessels were created whose innately lavish decoration and great attention to detail still delight us today. This saucer-dish shape - originally embellished in gilt - was likewise created during this period and its relief moulding is a quite marvellous example of Meissen's exquisite powers of craftsmanship. Motifs or patterns such as, in this case, the flowers and leaves of a summer convolvulus are carved out of the surface in such a way that they seem to grow out of the porcelain - a technique that lends the dish extraordinary depth and texture. Porcelain painter Holger Schill has highlighted individual flowers and leaves, thus further accentuating the moulded detail and enhancing its three dimensional effect. The pale pink flowers of the popular climber, around which tiny butterflies bob and dart, combine with the impressive relief moulding to form a charming, finely-balanced composition of softly-spoken sculptural decoration and formal opulence. Meissen's porcelain painters have been articulating a longing for harmony and beauty through the medium of flower painting for a great many generations now. At the same time, every passing era yields a style of its own, enabling flower painters to bring the subject to fresh life over and over again.