ROYAL VIENNA PORCELAIN ASTI REFLEXION PORTRAIT PLATE 100% HAND PAINTED WAGNER

Description

ROYAL VIENNA PORCELAIN ASTI REFLEXION PORTRAIT PLATE 100% HAND PAINTED WAGNER
A gorgeous and fine Royal Vienna style portrait cabinet plate which is 100% hand painted, including the border.
The painting on this plate is an extremely well executed portrait of a lovely brown-haired young woman in profile, wearing a maroon gown.
This one is done by a very talented artist as she is about as close to “photographic realism” as you can get.
I have owned many of these plates over the years and this is one of the better painted ones I have seen.
Just stunning!
The cobalt blue border on this plate is covered with lavish gold, all of which is hand painted.
The style of the border is an unusual one, featuring birds and bellflowers.
The portrait featured on this plate is taken from one originally painted by a famous artist by the name of Angelo Asti (1847-1903), who, depending on what source you consult, was either French or Italian.
This particular portrait is known as “Reflexion” (this is the spelling I have always seen on porcelain pieces displaying this same image) or “Reflection”.
The front of the plate is artist signed “Wagner” at the lower right where the subject’s gown meets the gold border around the portrait.
The obverse of the plate has a blue overglaze “beehive” mark, a gold “paint-out” mark (a common practice of the period – see the 2
nd
paragraph below) over a Rosenthal Selb-Bavaria Mark and a hand painted “D 312” in red (probably the decoration number).
According to the book
Marks on German, Bohemian and Austrian Porcelain 1710 to the Present
by Robert E. Rontgen this particular Rosenthal mark was in use from 1908 to 1953.
Since the original Royal Vienna factory closed in 1864 dozens of firms produced their own versions of the decorating style originally produced by this factory in what the following book describes as the “post-1864 private enterprise” period.
My source for this information is the book
Godden’s Guide To European Porcelain
by Geoffrey Godden from Chapter 5 entitled “
Vienna and Vienna-styled Porcelains
”.
I want to be clear that this piece is not an original Royal Vienna factory piece but is decorated in a style that is similar to the original Royal Vienna factory as described in the previous paragraph.
The decorating studios that produced these pieces, in most cases, did not produce their own porcelain but purchased blanks from a variety of other firms who did manufacture porcelain.
If the maker of the porcelain had marked the plate these decorators then many times painted over the porcelain manufacturer’s mark, or in some cases even ground it off.
Many people put great emphasis on the “artist’s signature” or the “mark” on the obverse of a piece of porcelain such as this.
However, as experienced collectors of Royal Vienna style porcelain we have come to realize over the years that the marks on the bottom of a piece (such as the “beehive” mark) and the artist signature (like “Wagner”) do not define the piece.
Instead, the style and quality of the decoration and the artistry of the portrait are what really matters.
As reinforcement for our beliefs, according to the beautiful book
Hand Painted Porcelain Plates: Nineteenth Century to the Present
by Richard Rendall and Elise Abrams “there were no less than sixteen Wagner’s actively painting china in Germany, Austria and Bohemia in the latter part of the nineteenth century” and “Attributions are impossible”.
Regardless, a strikingly beautiful plate in excellent original condition!
I do my best to describe all items as accurately as possible and to the best of my ability.
Some of my photos may be somewhat lighter or darker than actual to better show detail or color.
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Age and Condition
Circa 1910.
It is in excellent to near mint original condition.
Please look closely at the photos as they are an important part of my description of this item.
There are no chips, flea bites, cracks, hairlines or repairs.
The gold trim shows only some extremely light signs of use or wear (I really only see a bit of wear to the rim where the plate rests when stood up for display) - see the photos.
The plate rings like a bell when I tap it anywhere on the rim with my fingernail.
I also examined the plate thoroughly front & back under a black-light and found no evidence of any damage or repairs.
The plate is really in exceptional condition for a 100+ year old piece of hand decorated porcelain.
Please keep in mind the photos may be blown up at least 8-10 times normal, so anything you see will look 8-10 times larger in the photos than it really is.
Please note: if you see a dark spot in the photos it is from my camera and is not a mark on the piece.
It will be either just to the right of center towards the bottom or slightly above center on the right side of the photo.
Approximate Dimensions
About 10” (25.4 cm) in diameter at the rim and it sits about 1.1875” (3 cm) off the table at the rim.
Approximate Weight
About 1 pound .25 ounce (463 grams).
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