A Very Rare Meissen Bottger Porcelain Teapot and Cover modelled by Johann Jakob Irminger (1635-1724) and decorated by the workshop of Johann Georg Funcke (act. ca. 1713–1740). The squat bombé form body is moulded with an identical flower bouquet on each side painted pink, blue and yellow. The neck is further ornamented with a moulded lappet and tassel border accented with painted enamels. Below the curved spout is a moulded mask terminal with gaping mouth while the loop handle bears foliate terminals. The dome cover is further decorated with moulded tassels painted yellow and pink below the finial, where three applied flower sprigs, individually painted in pink, yellow, and blue, are moulded around the cover.

The teapot form was originally designed by the court goldsmith Johann Jakob Irminger who was ordered by Augustus the Strong to collaborate with the arcanist Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682-1719). As such, early Meissen porcelain bears a strong influence from Baroque metalwork where this model was first produced in red stoneware, followed by undecorated white porcelain.

The decoration was painted by the Dresden goldsmith Johann Georg Funcke and his workshop, whose relationship with Meissen began on 13th May 1713. In his invoices to the manufactory, billing for black enamel only appears from 1718.

See a similar modelled teapot and cover in Bottger red stoneware in the Getty Museum, Los Angeles

See an undecorated Bottger porcelain example in the Porzellansammlung, Dresden

A similar example with enamelled decoration is in the Ernst Schneider Collection, Schloss Lustheim, Munich, formerly in the Otto and Magdalena Blohm Collection

A similar example with enamelled decoration is in the Malcolm Gutter Collection, as a promised gift to the Legion of Honor, San Francisco, formerly in the Otto and Magdalena Blohm Collection