A sauce boat from the dinner service for Field Marshal Burchard Christoph von Münnich

Meissen. Around 1738. Porcelain, colored onglaze decoration, gilding. H. 11 x 25,5 x 17 cm. Crossed swords mark. Slightly dented at the bases of the volutes. Sulkowski-Ozier model. Shaped like a ship’s hull with a rounded bottom, resting on four volute feet, with two volute handles. Beneath the spouts are naturalistically posed female-head mascarons; below them on both sides is the Münnich coat of arms framed by the chain of the Russian Order of St. Andrew. Additionally painted with Indian floral branches and scattered flowers. Count Burchard Christoph von Münnich (1683–1767) was an engineer and field marshal in the service of Saxony and Russia; he fell from grace in 1741 and was exiled to Siberia. Under Peter III, he was rehabilitated and appointed by Catherine the Great as General Director of the Baltic ports and canals, as well as commissioned to oversee the construction of the new port of Reval - Literature: For the Münnich coat of arms, see the Hoffmeister Collection, Vol. II, pp. 528 ff. and p. 604 - Provenance: Privcate property, Lower Saxony