A Meissen plate from the Podewils service, circa 1741-42A Meissen plate from the Podewils service, circa 1741-42Of hexafoil shape, decorated with scattered sprigs of indianische Blumen and a coat of arms surrounded by the Order of the Black Eagle, surmounted by a gilt coronet and flanked by two black eagle supports each with crowned FR monogram, standing on gilt and red scrolling supports, the double gilt line around the moulded rim interspersed with five moulded gilt shells at the corners, 25.5cm diam., crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue, P. 1 in gilding inside footrim, impressed 21 (minor stacking wear)Provenance:Given by Augustus III of Poland and Saxony to the Prussian envoy, Heinrich Graf von Podewils, probably in 1742;Ole Olsen Collection, Copenhagen, by 1924, sold Winkel & Magnussen Copenhagen, 12 May 1948, lots 336-388 (the service);With Andreina Torre, Zürich;The Hoffmeister Collection, Hamburg, sold in these Rooms, 26 May 2010, lot 83Literature:D. Hoffmeister, Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts, II (1999), no. 353Exhibited:Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, The Hoffmeister Collection, 1999-2009Heinrich von Podewils (1695-1760) entered Prussian service in 1720 and, together with his two brothers, was raised to the rank of Graf (Count) in 1741. He was Prussian envoy in Copenhagen and Stockholm in 1728-29, and subsequently was Prussian negotiator following the Silesian wars, signing the peace treaties of Breslau (1742) and Dresden (1745). It was probably in connection with the First Silesian War that Podewils was sent by the newly crowned King of Prussia, Frederick the Great, on a mission to Dresden, where he arrived on 15 November 1741. Podewils himself recorded in a memoir, "as of the end of 1741, I was posted by His Royal Majesty to the court of Dresden where, after having successfully accomplished my commission, the King in Poland most graciously made me a gift of a portrait of himself, lavishly set with diamonds, and a costly porcelain table service" (quoted in Samuel Wittwer, Liasons Fragiles: Exchanges of Gifts between Saxony and Prussia in the Early Eighteenth Century. In Cassidy-Geiger (ed.) 2007, p. 101)).The shapes for the service had been developed around the same time for the Elector Clemens August of Cologne (Hoffmeister 1999, II, no. 361), and a handful of slightly later examples with simple flower painting have also survived. Dr. Wittwer speculates (op. cit., p. 102) that the Podewils service decoration of indianische Blumen may originally have been intended for the Elector, who preferred more European flowers. The design may then have been adapted for Podewils, perhaps because the service was urgently required. Additions to the service appear to have been ordered at Meissen, and at the Berlin manufactory after Podewils' death. In a letter to Karl-Wilhelm Finck von Finckenstein, Frederick the Great wrote of Podewils after his death: "I regret very much poor Podewils. He was a man of honour and a good citizen. The loss of such a worthy and faithful servant will always remain a sorrowful memory" (quoted in Hoffmeister 1999, II, p. 608). One hundred and sixty-three pieces from this service (including some Berlin replacements), including sixty-four plates of this size, were in the collection of Ole Olsen, which was sold in Copenhagen between 1943 and 1953.