Limited Masterworks Trophy Swan

Count Heinrich von Brühl was born on 13 August 1700 and recruited to the royal court in Dresden at an early age. Such were his diplomatic skills, his hunger for power and his grasp of art that he soon rose to become the second most powerful and influential politician at the Saxon-Polish court after the elector-king Augustus the Strong himself. Following the death of the formidable Polish King and Saxon Prince-Elector, Brühl played a decisive part in getting his son Frederick Augustus II (1696-1763) elected King of Poland in October 1733 as Augustus III. The latter duly confirmed Brühl in all his official functions and appointed him cabinet minister for legal, financial and fiscal affairs. The count was additionally encharged with overall supervision of the Meissen porcelain manufactory. It was the King himself who, in 1737, enshrined his protégé's right to help himself to manufactory porcelains at no cost, something Brühl did not hesitate to exploit. Ably assisted by J. F. Eberlein, J. J. Kaendler set about modelling the 18th-century's most extensive and lavish service of tableware for the pomp-loving count between 1737-1741. It comprised some 2,200 parts and went down in history as the Swan Service.

The vase's chalice-shaped body stands on an ornate rocaille foot. Two handles on the body, one in the shape of a cherub, the other as a male head adorned with feathers. The few unmoulded areas of the vessel have been painted with indianisch flowers, whilst the rocailles and various other relief-moulded sections have been highlighted with gilding. The vase is surmounted by a formation profusely decorated with flowers from the base of which a small cherub appears to be preparing to float away.

This goblet vase consists of 32 separate parts. All the flowers - there are 53 in all - are modelled free-hand, making each piece is essentially unique a result.