Possibly, the vase presented as a regal gift to Alexander II (1818-1881), Emperor of Russia (1855-1881) by 🍷King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia in 1856

Acqui💦red by the present owner f༒rom a New York dealer in 1998.

Possibly, Munich, Glaspalast, Die Allgemeinen Deutschen Industrie-Ausstellung, July 15-October 15, 1854

The vase model, likely due to its sheer scale, was only rarely produced at the Berlin porcelain factory. The form Russische Vase mit Henkeln und Frauenköpfen (model 1686) was inspired by a slightly earlier design of Karl Friedrich Schinkel of 1830, ‘Schinkelsche Sorte’, which turn was based on the Medici-Krater in the Uffizi collections in Florence.ⁱ It is interesting to compare the form🦹 with a vase shape produced at the Imperial Porcelain Factory, St. Petersburg for the Imperial family. A particularly close pair, for the period of Nicholas I, circa 1833, painted to simulate lapis-lazuli and with painted landscape panels sold at Christie's London, November 28, 2011, lot 381.

A vase of this scale and exceptional quality of decoration would almost certainly have been reserved for a royal gift, given by King Friedrich Wilhelm IV of Prussia, who was the Berlin factory’s principal patron at that point in time. Indeed two of three other known complete vases of this form were given to Royal recipients. Tantalizingly, two records for a Russiche Vase with this decoration are recorded in the historic Berlin archives, though in both cases, no detailed description of the ornamental vase decoration has survived, so that it is not possible to identify the vase precisely. One entry for a vase with this painted motif was presented exhibited in Munich in 1854. A second entry for a vase painted with this motif was presented as a regal gift to Alexander II (1818-1881), Emperor of Russia (1855-1881) by the King Friedrich Wilhelm IV in 1856 (the King's nephew).ⁱⁱ This was likely in celebration of the⭕ Emperor's coronation which took place that year. It seems u♑nlikely that two vases of this rare form were painted with the same scene, and one can speculate that both entries refer to the same vase, and that the exhibited vase was sent as a regal gift to Russia two years later.

The Glaspalast in Munich was built 1853/54 in response to London's Crystal Palace, with a view of emulating the successes of the 1851 Great Exhibition. The Berlin porcelain factory was among the exhibitor♊s of porcelain and glass, and a contemporary review of the Berlin stand may refer to the🅰 present vase:

"Was das Einzelne anbelangt, so liefern die verschiedenen Vasen einen schlagenden Beweis, wie hoch die Berliner Anstalt in Bezug auf schöne Decoration und Technik steht, Den Glanzpunkt in Kühnheit der Ausführung bildet die 7' große französische Vase mit einem Gemälde von Kaulbach; sie besteht aus 4 Stücken mit Ver-bindungen, wie der Fuß und Henkel aus Bronze.... Zwei kleinere griechische Vasen von 4'

Höhe mit Gemälden nach Kolbe und nach Eybel...sind ebenfalls trefflich."

[As far as the individual pieces are concerned, the various vases provide striking proof of how highly the Berlin workshop ranks in terms of beautiful decoration and technique. The highlight in boldness of execution is the 7' French vase with a painting by Kaulbach; it consists of 4 pieces with connections, such as the bronze foot and handle.... Two smaller Greek vases of 4' height with paintings after Kolbe and ♍after Eybel...are also excellent]

Allgemeine Deutsche Industrieausstellung, Munich 1854: Bericht der Beurtheilungs-Commission bei der Allgemeinen Deutschen Industrie-Ausstellung zu München im Jahr 1854, pp. 10-11.

Scene

The scene is based on the monumental oil painting by Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Younger (1781-1853), titled Albrecht Achilles erobert bei Nürnberg eine Fahne, [Albrecht Achilles Captures a Flag at Nuremberg]. The painting was purchased in 1806 by the City of Berlin, as a gift for Luise of P🔜russia on her departure for Holland. The whereabout𓆏s of the painting is unknown.

Kolbe, a nephew of the engraver Carl Wilhelm Kolbe the Elder , studied at the Academy of his hometown of Berlin, particularly under Daniel Chodowiecki. His first major historical composition, the chalk drawing Froben's Death at the Battle of Fehrbellin , won the Academy's first prize in 1796. From 1815 to 1853 Kolbe was a member of🥀 the Royal Prussian Academy of Arts in Berlin and from 1846 he was a member of its Senate.

Extant Examples

Very few Russische Vases mit Henkeln und Frauenköpfen are ♒known. One, circa 1840, painted wi🌞th a portrait of Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia, reserved by a similar faux-lapis ground, was offered, Kunstauktionshaus Schlosser, Bamberg, July 31, 2021, lot 776.

In 1842, Friedrich Wilhelm IV gifted a Russiche vase to Mehmed Ali (1769-1849), Pasha of Egypt (1805-1849) The vase was painted with an oriental battle scene of figures attacking an elephant and rider, illustrated in Samuel Wittwer, Refinement & Elegance, Early Nineteenth-Century Royal Porcelain from the Twinight Collection, New York, Munich, 2007, exh. cat., p. 88, figs. 106-07.ⁱⁱⁱ

In 1851, the King gifted his sister Alexandrine (1803-1982), Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a pair of Russiche vases. The King’s Conto-Buch, (book of gifts), includes in 1851 the note “Two ‘no. 3’ vases with view of Schloss Erdmannsdorf and Erdmannsdorf from Rothersberg: the Norwegian church in Brücken[-berg] and the Schweizerhaus on the Rothersberg, with pedestals.”. One of the vases, painted with a Silesian topographical view of the Norwegian church of Wang, after the ca. 1845 🥂painting by Carl Daniel Freydanck, subsequently entered the Twinight Collection, illustrated in Wittwer, ibid., pp. 366-69, cat. no. 118, where the author also notes that all that has survived of the pairing vase is the upper section, with a later pedestal mount, which was offered at Schloss Ahlden, September 21, 2002, lot 900.

_{[i] A Schinkelsche Sorte-form vase was gifted by Friedrich Wilhelm III, King of Prussia to William IV, King of the United Kingdom in 1832.}

_{[ii] Sotheby’s is grateful to Eva Wollschläger at the Berlin archives for generously sharing this information.}

_{[iii] Illustrated alongside a watercolour design dated 1840.}