Limited Edition Tureen with pepper pod

Pepper has been a coveted luxury item ever since ancient times. The precious spice, often referred to as "black gold", was first shipped from India to Lisbon by Vasco da Gama in 1498. The trade in pepper led to the opening up of new trade routes and the spice quickly became one of the most popular trade goods imported from the Far East alongside porcelain - "white" and "black" gold, united in the bellies of the ships of the European merchant fleets, which also purveyed treasured goods to aristocratic courts in Germany. It was within this context that Meissen modeller Johann Joachim Kaendler celebrated the pepper pod on a tureen cover he produced in 1742. Meissen's present-day porcelain painters drew inspiration from the glorious colours of the Orient when decorating the period vessel anew - very much in keeping with Kaendler's exotic pod. The warm, intense "Oman red" is reminiscent of the deep, mysterious red tones often found in oriental fabrics and works of art and reflects the splendour and exoticism of the Orient. As a ground colour, it creates an impressive contrast to the brilliant white of the porcelain and lends the birds and fruit painted in gilt a gleam all of their own. The relief moulding was deliberately kept in the white so as to, as it were, irresistibly draw the beholder's eye towards the gilt highlights and consummate detail. This, then, is a veritable work of art with the aid of which the great Kaendler once elevated the small pepper to the status of a quasi-divine relic.