Limited Masterworks Vase four Elements "Earth"

Fire, water, earth, air - the 18th-century aristocracy simply adored allegorical depictions of the elements. Personified as gods or visualised by means of animate beings and artefacts, the forces of nature were portrayed as having a human or, indeed, a superhuman soul. The Saxon prince- elector Frederick Augustus II, son of the legendary Augustus the Strong, commissioned Johann Joachim Kaendler to design a prestigious series of Four Elements vases in 1741. Six years later, in 1747, Meissen's master modeller began work on medium-sized and "miniature" versions of these showpiece receptacles. The Manufactory is now re-issuing the latter series for the first time.

Kaendler's sumptuously decorated masterpieces reflect his age's switch to designing porcelain in a European vein. Extravagant figurative embellishments ranging from shallow relief moulding on the sides of the vase to features modelled in the round such as branches and leaves, hand-modelled acorns and mushrooms, and tiny cherubs transform the vessel into a sculpture with an intricate silhouette that appears to be in flux. A total of 32 separate moulds go into the making of a vase whose complex applied detail necessitates particularly outstanding feats of craftsmanship. The agave plant issuing from the vase's neck, for instance, is made up of a great many individual leaves that all have to be modelled, luted on and decorated.

The first casting of this garniture can be admired in the Orangerie at Sanssouci Palace in Potsdam, by the way.