A very rare Meissen armorial teabowl and saucer from the Contarini service, circa 1725-30Each painted with the arms of Contarini within a silvered cartouche edged in purple and brown, the reverse of the teabowl with a broad chinoiserie vignette depicting several figures, the interior of the teabowl with a circular medallion with a checkerboard pattern of green and purple flower heads alternating with a geometric square pattern, gilt foliate scrollwork borders to the rims, the reverse of the saucer with two branches of indianische Blumen and two insects, crossed swords marks in underglaze-blue, incised / inside both footrims (2)注脚Provenance:The Hoffmeister Collection, Hamburg, Bonhams London, 26 May 2010, lot 76Literature:D. Hoffmeister, Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts, vol. I (1999), no. 306Exhibited:Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1999-2009Probably made for Simon Contarini, a member of one of the oldest and most distinguished Venetian families, boasting eight Doges and no fewer than forty-four Procurators of San Carlo. In 1722, Simon Contarini married Marietta Zustignan (Giustinian) (Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, Fragile Diplomacy - Meissen Porcelain for European Courts ca. 1710-63 (2007), p. 212). The style of decoration is closely similar to the armorial tea and coffee service with the arms of Morosini in the Rijksmuseum, of which the sugar box is dated 1731 (A. Den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum (2000), no. 103). The teapot of this service is also marked 'K.P.M' (see below), which suggests that there was at least on occasion a lapse of several years between the production of the porcelain and its decoration.Two teabowls and saucers from the same service were in the Erich von Goldschmidt-Rothschild Collection, sold Ball & Graupe, Berlin, 23-25 March 1931, lot 556. A further teabowl and saucer is in the Arnhold Collection, New York (Maureen Cassidy-Geiger, The Arnhold Collection of Meissen Porcelain 1710-50 (2008), no. 99); the teapot, marked with the K.P.M. mark in underglaze-blue and the crossed swords in blue enamel, was sold by Sotheby's New York, 25 October 2002, lot 1026; and the tea canister and cover is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (illustrated in Cassidy-Geiger 2007, fig. 10-8).