Nymphenburg Charger: Imperial Hofservice, 1760-65, Flowers and Butterflies

A Nymphenburg charger from the Imperial Hofservice, circa 1760-65, painted with a bouquet of flowers and scattered flower sprays, three butterflies and a dragonfly, the lobed border with ribbed intersections with pendant gilt dots suspended from gilt scrolls within a gilt scrollwork and blue band border, impressed Bavarian shield mark, numeral '2', and 'W' to inside of footrim, diameter 35 cm. Literature: for a discussion of this service and for further examples see Ziffer, a, 'Nymphenburger Porzellan: Sammlung Bauml', 1997, p. 133-139, where the catalogue cites numerous other examples and illustrates ten other pieces. Other Notes: the Hofservice was produced for use of the court of Maximillian III Joseph of Bavaria, Prince-elector of the holy Roman Empire and Duke of Bavaria from 1745-1777. It was most probably painted by Joseph Zachenberger (1732-1802) who was trained in flower painting by his father and apprenticed under Joseph Ruffin in Munich until 1760 when he became chief flower painter at the Nymphenburg factory, another piece from this service can be found in the collection of the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.