LONDON.- The auction of ‘The Hoffmeister Collection of Meissen Porcelain Part III’ took place today (24.11.10) at Bonhams, New Bond Street and made £790,560, selling 81% by lot and 71% by value. This brings the total for the three sales of finest collection of Meissen porcelain to £2,988,120.

The top selling lot today was an extremely rare Meissen plate from the ‘Black and Gold-Striped’ service circa 1735 which is believed at one time to have been in the possession of Baron de Zoubaloff in Moscow. The plate sold for £48,000. Other top lots include a Meissen circular dish circa 1735 (£48,000), a very rare Meissen armorial teabowl and sauce from the service for the Elector Clemens August of Cologne circa 1735 (£48,000) and a Meissen teapot and cover from the service for Pope Benedict XIV circa 1743 (£45,600).

Each of the three sales saw pieces returned to the descendants of the families they were created for. This morning Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis successfully bid £5,400 for an extremely rare saucer from a Thurn und Taxis armorial service of which only two other pieces are recorded.

Sebastian Kuhn, Bonhams Continental Porcelain Specialist comments, “It has been an honour to sell such a wonderful collection, put together with such care and precision and we are thrilled with the results today. We now look forward to our next sale of Fine European Ceramics on 8th December which contains many other remarkable Meissen pieces.”

The Hoffmeisters assembled the greatest collection in the world of highly important Meissen armorial porcelain, and, in the 300th anniversary year of the founding of the Meissen factory – Europe’s first porcelain factory – the three sales of the collection caused excitement amongst collectors. Many of the pieces included boast a prestigious provenance – diplomatic gifts between European princes that passed between some of the most colourful characters of the époque. As a result, Parts I, II and III of the sale saw enthusiastic bidding from private collectors, museums and dealers from around the world.

The Hoffmeister Collection shows the quality and variety of the oldest porcelain manufacturer in Europe – it provides a survey of the first 50 years of the manufactory’s existence, when Meissen dominated the taste for porcelain across Europe. This world famous collection was assembled over 40 years by two German brothers with a passion for this rare 18th century porcelain, and includes the largest and most important group of 18th century Meissen armorial porcelain anywhere in the world. For the past ten years it has been on show at the Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe in Hamburg. The collection includes examples of all the early styles of decoration, including copies of Asian prototypes, chinoiserie decoration, European landscape and botanical subjects and armorial porcelain.