Although created a decade later in Saxony, this small fond celadon box is very similar in form to the previous gold and agate box (inventory number 4007.1-2MC255/ДПИ), made in Paris between 1726 and 1732. On the porcelain box the painted side panels protrude while those on the lid and base are sunk in.
The couple painted on the lid of the box is taken from a print of La cascade after Antoine Watteau (1684–1721), engraved by Gérard Scotin II (1698–1755) and published in 1729. The subject was also very popular in England in the mid-eighteenth century on transfer-printed enamels and porcelain. The other panels of the box are painted in polychrome and Purpurmalerei with commedia dell’arte figures.

minimize...