Plat rond en porcelaine de Meissen proventant du service 'Dragon Rouge' de la Cour de Dresde, circa 1740-50

A Meissen circular dish from the 'Red Dragon' service for the Dresden Court, circa 1740-50

Painted in iron-red and gilding with dragons and auspicious symbols around the rim and two phoenixes in the centre, 24.6cm across, crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue, K[önigliche]. H[of]. C[onditorei] in purple, impressed 22
Footnotes:
See Julia Weber, Meißener Porzellane mit Dekoren nach ostasiatischen Vorbildern, vol. 2 (2013), pp. 246-254, for a detailed discussion of the origins and history of the 'Red Dragon' service. The decoration is based on a Japanese original (Weber, op. cit., ill. 39) and may have been produced as early as Summer 1729 for the Paris merchant, Rudolph Lemaire, who planned to sell the copies of Asian porcelain that he ordered at Meissen in Paris as the more costly originals. After the Lemaire plot was uncovered and the porcelain that he ordered was confiscated to the Japanese Palace, it seems that porcelain with this decoration was initially allowed to be sold to the public (Weber, p. 248). It is probable that Augustus the Strong only reserved the pattern for the sole use of the Court shortly before his death on 1st February 1733. At the beginning of November 1734 his successor, Augustus III, chose the 'Red Dragon' pattern to decorate the first Dresden court service of Meissen porcelain (Weber, p. 249). The first delivery followed in 1735, the first of many throughout the 18th and 19th centuries.