Model by Johann Joachim Kaendler, Meissen, January 1738; moulded and decorated before September 1739 (introduction of press numbers).
Ø 24.1 cm; underglaze-blue crossed swords mark; Dreher’s mark of four concentrically arranged triangles.
Swan Service design with a heron without a carp in its beak and with the so-called “Kaendler’s hut” on the left.
Kaendler created the soup plate in January 1738, as recorded in his work report (Pietsch 2000, no. 25, pp. 156 f.):
“For His Imperial Countly Excellency Count von Brühl, for the large service, a soup plate in the shape of a shell was made, in which shallowly raised water can be seen, upon which two swans are swimming, as well as two herons and various reeds.”
Another of Kaendler’s work reports states that in January 1738 he created “zweyerley Arthen” (two kinds) of the swan relief. These refer to designs based on the outer or the inner side of the scallop shell. In the version modelled after the outer side, transverse grooves intersect the radial shell ribs on the rim; in the other version, modelled after the inner side of the shell, these transverse grooves are absent, resulting in a smoother surface. Since our soup plate shows the transverse grooves, it belongs to the earlier version derived from the outer side of the shell (cf. Langeloh 2019, p. 663).
The soup plate is very rare. Pietsch explains this by the fact that it was used for only a single course, whereas the ordinary plates were used for several courses and therefore had to be replaced constantly. Accordingly, he lists only a few comparative examples (Pietsch, loc. cit.):
