Beschreibung:

Details
THE ROYAL WEDDING OF PRINCE WILHELM I I OF PRUSSIA AND PRINCESS AUGUSTE VICTORIA OF SCHLESWIG-HOLSTEIN: AN IMPORTANT PARCEL-GILT SILVER AND ENAMEL SIX-PIECE TEA SERVICE ON FITTED STAND
MADE BY ROBERT MAIERHEIM FOR GEBREDER FRIEDLANDER, BERLIN, 1881, DESIGNED BY HERMANN ENDE
Comprising: a teapot, a coffee pot, a tea urn on stand, a two-handled sugar bowl and cover, a pair of canisters and covers, and a fitted stand, of heavy gauge, the teapots and sugar bowl of oval baluster silhouette, on oval bases cast with leaf-tips on a matte ground, the lower body chased with conforming lobes, the upper bodies chased with on one side with draped reclining maiden offering wine to a winged putto or three Bacchic putti, the other side with shields enclosing the coat-of-arms accole of Prince Wilhelm II and Princess Auguste Victoria, the hinged domed covers with openwork crown finials flanked by leaf-capped scrolls, teapots with spouts formed as open-beaked eagle heads, the sugar bowl with conforming eagle head handles, the large tea urn of reel form, the front with a classical maiden attending three putto flanked by dolphins and applied floral boughs, the bi-furcated scroll handles topped crowned masks, spigot emerging from a lion’s mouth, the hinged cover with crown finial flanked by unicorns, the reverse with cipher WA, the tea urn detachable form lampstand, the spirit lamp enclosed within a shaped oval plinth buttressed by bold scrolls surmounted by seated figures of a fisherman with a spear and a draped female with net and fish, the center of the lampstand with blue enamel plaque with gilt inscription, the spherical canisters chased to match, quatrefoil stand fitted for tea implements, flat-chased with scrolls and raised on conforming wood and iron base with silver leaf-tip border, undersides later marked 925, wood base stamped with Prussian customs mark; Together with a matching slightly later cream jug, tea strainer, sugar tongs
42 1/2 in. (108 cm.) long, the stand; 24 1/8 in. (61.3 cm.) high, the tea urn on stand
822 oz. 8 dwt. (25,577 gr.) gross weighable silver
Provenance
Prince Wilhelm II (1859-1941), later Emperor of Germany and King of Prussia, and his first wife Princess Auguste Victoria (1858-1921), later Empress of Germany and Queen of Prussia, thence by descent until sold,
Kempinski, Berlin, 19 March 1954, lot 53.
Anonymous sale; Christie’s, Geneva, 19 May 1998, lot 33.