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Dimensions: diameter 11 in.

28 cm

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Notes: For a full discussion of the 'Elizabeth Service' see Ulrich Pietsch et al, Meissen for the Czars, the catalogue of an exhibition at the Residential Palace, Dresden, July 4 to September 26, 2004, p. 58-65. Long thought to have been ordered by Elizabeth on her accession to the Russian throne in 1741, research by Claus Boltz, published in 'Meissner Service mit dem Relief "Gotzkowsky erhabene Blumen" in der Eremitage in Leningrad', Manufaktur Echo, No. 13, 1970, p. 7, nos. 10-12, and cited by Lydia Liackhova, p. 58, indicates that the modeling of the service was indeed begun by Johann Friedrich Eberlein in 1741, but some nine months before Elizabeth came to the throne. A further group of wares of this unique form were made in 1744-45, but none subsequently. Sixty-nine pieces of the service were in the Hermitage after 1910, however it now seems unlikely that the service was a Russian court commission. The service is variously painted in the center with either an indianische Blumen spray or Holzschnittblumen, and Liackhova notes that the 'service' may in fact be an amalgamation of two similar services. An example of a plate of the present type was sold in these rooms, May 22, 1993, lot 21; and an example of the other, from the Collection of Jörg Nelte, was sold at Sotheby's, London, June 17, 1997, lot 94. A pair of 11 inch dishes almost identical to the present pieces was in the Collection of Frederick J. and Antoinette H. Van Slyke, sold in these rooms, September 26, 1989, lot 111.