Meissen porcelain bowl with a lid

This rare, lidded bowl in Meissen porcelain was purchased by the Comte Thierry de Looz-Corswarem Fund, which is managed by the King Baudouin Foundation. It is part of a special service that bears the arms of Charles Alexander of Lorraine and is decorated with gilded chinoiseries that are characteristic of the Seuter workshop. The bowl can now be admired by everyone at the Museum of the City of Brussels in the Maison du Roi King’s House.

A unique and refined soup bowl

This porcelain bowl, with two handles and a lid, also known as an ‘ecuelle’, dates from the first half of the 18th century and is decorated with beautiful chinoiseries and a very conspicuous coat of arms. The shapes and style of the decoration are characteristic of the prestigious porcelain manufacturer in Meissen, where the secrets of making porcelain were first unravelled in Europe. Around the sides of the bowl are scenes with Asian-inspired figures as well as the coat of arms, beneath a crown, of Charles Alexander of Lorraine. The lid is decorated with the coat of arms, as well as architectural and floral designs.

Porcelain painters of renown

The beautiful decoration on the bowl is attributed to the workshop of the Seuter family. The Bartholomeüs brothers, Abraham and Johann Paulus, trained as goldsmiths and worked as porcelain painters in Augsburg between 1722 and 1747. They quickly became experts in gold painting on Meissen porcelain and were specialized in chinoiseries as well as hunting scenes. Siegfried Ducret, the Meissen porcelain specialist, attributes the scenes on the lid of this bowl as having being painted by Abraham Seuter.

Remarkable provenance

This delicate bowl can be dated precisely and is particularly valuable given its provenance. The bowl was made a few decades after the founding of the Meissen factory, one of the oldest in Europe, as part of a service initially commissioned by Leopold I, Duke of Lorraine (1679-1729), or by one of his sons, Francis III, Duke of Lorraine (1708-1765), or Charles Alexander of Lorraine (1712-1780). All three of them had the same coat of arms. The bowl is mentioned in the inventory of Charles Alexander’s possessions at his castle in Tervuren, drawn up a year after his death.

A service bearing the arms of Charles Alexander of Lorraine

20 objects are cited in the inventory of Charles Alexander of Lorraine. Only seven of these are known to date and are in private or public collections, including at the Rijksmuseum In Amsterdam and the British Museum. Thanks to the Comte Thierry de Looz-Corswarem Fund, this bowl – the seventh on the list – can now also be seen by everyone, at the Brussels City Museum, in the Maison du Roi in the Brussels Grand Place. In the room dedicated to porcelain production in Brussels, this bowl serves to illustrate not only the great influence of Meissen porcelain production, but also the role played by Charles Alexander of Lorraine in promoting the development of the applied arts and, in particular, the creation of the first porcelain factories in the Brussels region.

The Comte Thierry de Looz-Corswarem Fund

The Comte Thierry de Looz-Corswarem Fund is committed to the protection of moveable cultural heritage, for the benefit of public institutions, through the purchase of masterpieces and documents that are meaningful to the history of Belgium.