A rare Böttger stoneware polished and engraved armorial tankard, with pewter-mounts, circa 1715

The emblematic pairing of an obelisk with the motto Toujours Ainsi can be situated within the rich tradition of early modern emblem literature, most plausibly deriving from Devises et Emblèmes Anciennes & Modernes by Heinrich Offelen, published in Augsburg in the 1690s. This compendium—issued in a German-Latin edition as Emblematische Gemüths-Vergnügung—belongs to a broader intellectual culture in which symbolic imagery and mottos functioned as vehicles of moral and courtly meaning. Notably, the third edition of 1697 presents, on page 28, an emblem labeled “Eine pyramid” (obelisk), associated with the maxim Toujours Ainsi (“Ever Thus” or “Always So”).

A closely comparable polished stoneware tankard bearing this same emblem once formed part of the distinguished Böttger stoneware collection of Caroline Luise of Baden-Durlach (1723–1783), an important Enlightenment patron and collector. The object subsequently passed to her son, Charles Louis of Baden (1755–1801), and remained within the margravial and later grand ducal collections at Karlsruhe and Baden-Baden until it sold at Sotheby’s, Baden-Baden, 7 October 1995, lot 1265.

At the Meissen porcelain manufactory, the experimental phase of Böttger stoneware prompted the recruitment of highly skilled glass engravers from Bohemia, whose expertise in polishing and incision was adapted to ceramic surfaces. Archival records from 5 August 1710 document no fewer than twenty-nine such artisans active at Meissen, reflecting the manufactory’s initial emphasis on elaborately finished stoneware. Yet this phase proved relatively brief: as the factory advanced toward the successful development of true porcelain, the prominence of stoneware declined, and by 1712 only four glass engravers remained. The early inventory of 3 August 1711—listing numerous “hohe glatte Bierkrüge (gebrannt)”—attests to the scale and ambition of this short-lived but technically remarkable production moment (see Claus Boltz, “Formen des Böttgersteinzeugs im Jahre 1711,” Mitteilungsblatt der Keramikfreunde der Schweiz, 96/1982).

Sotheby’s is grateful to Maureen Cassidy-Geiger for her assistance in the research of this lot.