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Fragile booty

This vessel is not made for fresh flowers – but cut flowers were not fashionable during the reign of Frederick the Great anyway. The receptacle shaped like an amphora with its pattern derived from traditional basketwork only served decorative purposes.
This impressive example of Meißen porcelain is mounted in the Neues Palais (New palace). Countless boxes of precious porcelain were brought to Potsdam by order of the king while the porcelain manufacture in Meißen was occupied by Prussian troups during the Seven Years’ War. Frederick himself visited the manufacture several times and expertly commissioned numerous dinner services and individual pieces. Later, he became an entrepreneur in his own right when he turned the local Prussian manufacture into the Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur (Royal Porcelain Factory; KPM) Berlin. His sceptre serves as its mark until today.