A Creussen Stoneware Pewter-Mounted Planetenkrug dated 1666
20.6cm to the lip of the tankard
24.8 cm to the top of the finial
Decorated in blue green, red, yellow, pink and white enamels on a dark brown salt-glaze, with Roman gods representing the ‘planets’ Saturn, Jupiter, Mars, The Sun and Venus under rosettes set in cartouches edged with cherubs and palms.
The style and palette of the enamelling is very similar to that of the German and Bohemian glass of the period and it is possible that it was done by some of the same painters. It is one of the earliest instances of enamelling on ceramics.
David Gaimster points out that Creussen wares were never mass-produced unlike some other stoneware of the period. He suggested that only about 1,100 Creussen vessels have been recorded.
Similar examples:
A very similarly decorated schraubflasche (flask) dated 1667 from Die Sammlung Der Markgrafen und Grossherzoge von Baden, Sothebys, 5-12 October 1995, lot 771 (DMK 38,400)
Smaller broken example illustrated in Au Gré du Rhin: Les Grès Allemands du Musée National de La Renaissance, Cat 79 (2014)
Condition – Slight surface wear to enamels. The pewter mount worn through at the edge.
Literature – German Stoneware 1200-1900, David Gaimster, 1997, British Museum Press (p272-273)
This item has been sold