A very rare Bottger stoneware circular portrait medallion of King Friedrich I of Prussia

probably circa 1713 crisply moulded with a bust portrait in low relief facing to dexter against a polished ground in a gilt metal frame with hanging loop, pierced for hanging incised crossed swords mark to reverse, painted Schreiber Collection inventory number S.613, 10cm., 4in. Lady Charlotte Schreiber recorded the purchase of 'a good Medallion portrait of Augustus the Strong in Bottger Ware' on 3rd June 1878 in Berlin, immediately following her account of an attempt on the German Emperor's life the previous day. This medallion is not recorded in the 1711 inventories of the manufactory: see Claus Boltz, 'Formen des Bottgersteinzeugs im Jahre 1711', in Mitteilungsblatt der Keramikfreunde der Schweiz, 96/March 1992, pp.7-40. The King died on 25th February 1713 - the present lot may have been produced as a comemmorative medallion. Siegfried Asche (see below, pp.79 and 81, n.27) suggests that this medallion is based on an original by Heinrich Paul Grosskurt (1675-1751), the Dresden court medallist. The source for this was almost certainly a wax relief by Andreas Roht (or Roth, active in Berlin around 1700) of 1700-1703 (it entered the Prussian Royal Kunstkammer on 8th October 1703; see below, Theuerkauff p.54) depicting Friedrich I as Elector of Brandenburg (see Klaus-Peter Arnold, 'Figurliches Porzellan aus der Sammlung Spitzner', Exhibition Catalogue, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellansammlung im Zwinger, 19th August-29th December 1988, p.34), and E.J.Pike, A Biographical Dictionary of Wax Modellers, p.121 and pl.242 for an illustration of the wax relief, which differs only in details of the breast plate. For a comprehensive discussion of the career of Andreas Roht and the links to the Bottger stoneware medallion, see Christian Theuerkauff, 'Two Wax Portraits of Frederick III Elector of Brandenburg, and King Charles XII of Sweden by Andreas Roht (Anders Roth)', in The Sculpture Journal, vol.III/1999, pp.53-63, ill.1 for the wax medallion of the Elector, in the Skulpturensammlung of the Staatliche Museen of Berlin, and ill.12 for the stoneware medallion in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg). Other published examples of this medallion are in the collection of the Zwinger, Dresden (Carl Spitzner Collection), published by O.Walcha, Meissner Porzellan, ill.16 and p.464, and Arnold, op.cit., no.4; and in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg (formerly in the Adalbert von Lanna Collection), published by R.Ruckert, Meissener Porzellan, no.829; Siegfried Asche, 'Der Dresdner Bildhauer des fruhen achtzehnten Jahrhunderts als Meister des Bottgersteinzeugs und des Bottgerpozellans', in Keramos, 49/1970, pp.67-92, ill.22; 'Bottgersteinzeug und Fruhes Meissener Porzellan', Exhibition Catalogue, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nurnberg 1982, no.72.