Sauceboat from the St. Andrew Service
Medium
Hard-paste porcelain, polychrome enamels, and gilding
Dimensions
12.7 × 24.5 × 22 cm (5 × 9 5/8 × 8 5/8 in.)
Classification
tableware
Department
Applied Arts of Europe
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
160167
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
The Saint Andrew service was given by the Saxon elector Friedrich Augustus II (King Augustus III of Poland) to Tsarina Elisabeth I of Russia on the occasion of her nephew’s marriage to the German princess later known as Catherine the Great. Items from the 400-piece service are decorated with the emblems of the order of Saint Andrew, including the imperial Russian double-headed eagle and Saint Andrew nailed to a cross. The order of Saint Andrew, established by Peter the Great around 1698, was the...
About the Artist
Meissen Porcelain Manufactory
The Meissen Porcelain Manufactory, established on June 6, 1710, by Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland, in the Albrechtsburg castle at Meissen near Dresden, marked Europe's breakthrough in producing true hard-paste porcelain. Building on experiments by physicist Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus and alchemist Johann Friedrich Böttger, who perfected the formula using local...