The porcelain plate measures 23.2 cm in width and 21.5 cm in height. On the glazed surface the motif is not centrally painted, and measures 17.5 cm x 20 cm. On the back, positioned between the letter “P” and the digit “8” (8 ounces) is the crowned eagle with sceptre and the sphere in the claws. This mark, with the coat of arms along with numbers and letters in-depth porcelain is made in this way before cooking since it is difficult to forge. The Eagle Brand on porcelain, which can only be used by the Prussian Royal family and their institutions, on the dishes and complicate forms in 1823 is replaced by the sceptre and stamped along with the letters K.P.M.
The K.G.M (Königliche Gesundheitsgeschirr-Manufaktur) active from 1795 to 1866, marks its products to local masonry as ok for food, health, medicine, and hygiene that were manufactured with a glass without the poisonous lead. (Gesundheit = Health). The porcelain plates of this branch of the large KPM (Königliche Porzellan Manufaktur) in Berlin, thanks to new machines, were cheaper and much appreciated because they did not create problems during the burn and had a smooth glazed surface ideal to paint. A characteristic already well-known to Jaquotot, who arranged in her atelier an oven suited to small objects could improve some shades with repeating burns. Perhaps there exist other works that the artist carried out on this building but till now they remain unknown and not traceable.

It can be considered that this plate has always been in moderate guardianship and was passed down from one generation to another disinterested from financial profit. For sure, even in such a situation, wanting to make enquiries about the source and the author of the image of Raffaelo led inevitably to erroneous research and perplexity. It is possible that to not experts and lovers, the work was considered a product of the KPM, well known for its production of copies of works of art on porcelain plates, and consequently on the commercial side of the market it was simply considered an article of not excessive value of this sector of the Berlinese manufacture.

As far as we are concerned, before it became part of our collection, it is proven that it was put into the frame in Zurich in December 1959 on the open local market at a price adapted to the demand of these jobs. However, without any documentation concerning it will remain impossible to explain why, for just under two centuries, it has not been made any reference by scholars and historians of porcelain, about this work of inestimable artistic value.

 

Credits:

KPM Sign: By No machine-readable author provided. MatthiasKabel assumed (based on copyright claims). [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:KPM_sign_from_1841.jpg