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255 This ‘Soldier’ vase, also known as ‘Dragoon as ‘tall’, rather than the more customary
vase’, which stands over one metre high, ‘large’, they may well have been the original
A RARE AND MASSIVE BLUE AND WHITE owes its exceptionally unusual and centuries- monumental Dragoon vases of over a meter
‘SOLDIER’ VASE old reputation to an idea of Augustus the in height. The term was also used in travel
Kangxi Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland reports of the 18th century. In 1723 Augustus
Of tall baluster form rising to a high shoulder, (1670-1733). In the summer of 1715 he the Strong acquired further monumental
waisted neck and everted rim, well painted was pondering on how he could solve two blue-and-white decorated lidded vases of
in shades of lighter and darker blue with four problems at the same time: on the one hand, the same type, also commonly referred to
panels divided by narrow borders enclosing to reduce the size of his army following the as ‘Dragoon vases’, which were placed in
white morning glory scrolls, the panels Great Northern War and, as was customary, the ‘Dutch Palace’ (the Holländisches Palais,
painted with two scenes of ladies and boys at offering it to another prince for purchase, and subsequently known as the Japanese Palace)
play in a fenced garden by a pavilion with well on the other hand, instead of being paid with until 1726 and then in the Tower room of the
detailed interior, alternating with two scenes money, to accept Asian porcelain in payment. Royal Residence, the Japanese Palace and
of boys behind fences watching two jousting After all, instead of merely filling a porcelain finally in the Johanneum, before finally ending
mounted warriors, all between the shoulders cabinet with these costly works of art, he had up in the porcelain collection in the Zwinger in
with a zigzag cross-hatched band and demi- plans to fill a whole palace with them in order Dresden, their numbers by now depleted by
flower heads, and a border below enclosing to elevate his position in royal circles. the war.
roundels reserved on a cracked-ice ground
above pendent stiff leaves and a narrow band He casually happened to mention this Six ‘Dragoon vases’ were auctioned off as
of zigzag cross-hatched design, the neck with ‘notion’ to his governor in Dresden, which part of the nationalisation of the Dresden art
upright and pendant lobed petals. actually meant that, despite some misgivings, collections in 1918-1920, through Rudolph
94cm (37in) high the ‘idea’ had to be turned into reality as Lepke’s auction house in Berlin. With
quickly as possible. Augustus the Strong the expropriation of the nobility and royal
£20,000 - 30,000 had probably remembered that, on a visit to houses in Germany in 1924, and the so-
CNY180,000 - 280,000 King Frederick I of Brandenburg and Prussia called Unification Treaty, ‘Law of the Dispute
HK$220,000 - 330,000 in 1709, he had seen the vast treasures between the Free State of Saxony and the
in the porcelain cabinet at the palaces of former Royal house’ of 21 July 1924, the
Oranienburg and Charlottenburg, and that the House of Wettin Albertinian Line acquired
latter’s successor, Frederick William I, deemed two further vases, one of which is most likely
all inherited magnificence and art superficial, to be the present Bonhams vase. The vase
preferring instead to increase the size of his was either sold or gifted by House of Wettin
army. at a later date, as other gifts of porcelain are
known.
Thus it came about that negotiations for
the exchange of porcelain and soldiers took It is possible that the present vase was one
place. Finally, on 29 April 1717, a delivery list of the seven monumental lidded vases in the
for 90 pieces of porcelain from the Palace Charlottenburg delivery of 1 May 1717, three
of Oranienburg was issued and on the next of which, more baluster-shaped and painted
day, 1 May 1717, another list of 61 items of all-round, have survived and are on display in
porcelain from the Palace of Charlottenburg, the Dresden Zwinger.
bringing the overall total to 151 items. On
the same day, 600 Dragoon soldiers without Related pairs of jars include a pair with covers
horses and officers crossed the border at in The Royal Collection, Windsor Castle,
Baruth between Saxony and Brandenburg- possibly brought to England from Germany
Prussia. On the advice of Frederick William with George I’s Hanoverian dynasty, and
I, the exchange – which had a monetary another pair now in the collection of The
value of 26,000 thalers – took the form of a National Trust at Petworth House, West
quite ordinary ritual and was declared a ‘gift’ Sussex.
between the two royals.
See a comparable ‘soldier’ vase, Kangxi,
The Charlottenburg porcelains included “12 sold in our New Bond Street salerooms, 12
tall vases, 7 of which had lids and 5 of which May 2011, lot 317, and another similar pair of
were without”. As the twelve vases were vases, Kangxi, sold at Christie’s New York, 23
described in the Charlottenburg delivery list January 2007, lot 12.
98 | BONHAMS
