Special presentation on the new acquisition of a dinner service from Friedrich Wilhelm II.
The Prussian Palaces and Gardens Berlin-Brandenburg Foundation (SPSG) invites you to “dine” in the Marble Palace in the New Garden and present a newly acquired dinner service from the Royal Porcelain Manufactory Berlin (KPM) at a set table!
Image gallery
Königliche Porzellanmanufaktur Berlin: Teller (flach) aus dem Service Friedrich Wilhelms II. mit fleurs en terrasse und Groteskenköpfen
In the summer of 2022, the SPSG was able to acquire 37 parts of a service that KPM produced for Friedrich Wilhelm II from 1795 onwards. It was used in the Berlin Palace and, as the considerable number of later additions or replacements shows, was still very popular at court in the late 19th century.
In the Marmorpalais, the early classicist summer palace of Friedrich Wilhelm II (1744-1797) on the Holy Lake, visitors can expect a lunch table set according to contemporary models, where many of the new additions can be admired as if you were a guest of the king yourself. Other porcelain objects from the time of Friedrich Wilhelm II provide information about the fascinating history of the service's origins and use. Here, visitors can find out, among other things, what the service has to do with the military conflicts between Prussia and revolutionary France, which were officially ended in the Peace of Basel in 1795.
The eye-catching floral decoration of the service also brought about a real taste revolution, which is still considered one of the highlights of KPM flower painting under the name “fleurs en terrasse”. For the first time, as was previously usual on Berlin porcelain, artificial bouquets or scattered flowers were no longer depicted, but rather flowers that grew naturally from a meadow. The service impressively completed the change from rococo to the simple elegance of classicism. In the Marble Palace, visitors learn more about the creation of the special floral decoration in the early 1790s - for example, how Friedrich Wilhelm II's wife Friederike Luise of Hesse-Darmstadt (1751-1805) made the "fleurs en terrasse" acceptable.
With its attractive floral paintings, the service conjured up sought-after ornamental flowers of the time, including auricles, ranunculus, carnations and anemones, as well as varieties with sentimental connotations such as forget-me-nots and pansies (French pensée, the thought), so to speak, from the garden to the table. In order to re-establish this direct connection to the historical garden world, information bases with flower pots will be set up at three locations in the New Garden, which the foundation's gardeners have planted with the corresponding flower varieties from the table service.
