A Neoclassical Augsburg silver tureen The base designed as four rams carrying a canopy on a round plinth decorated with a frieze of palmettes supporting a round dish with a removable silver gilt inset and slightly domed lid with a finial formed as a recumbent lion. The inset engraved with the inventory number IIII and four dots, the inside of the tureen with II, the lid with 4. and the fidei commiss stamp “FIDC”. Although it does not bear the coat-of-arms found on other pieces from the service, it is nevertheless obvious that this tureen originates from the dinner silver of the Grand Dukes of Mecklenburg which was ordered by Georg von Mecklenburg-Strelitz, the younger brother of Queen Luise of Prussia, from various goldsmiths between 1819 and 1823. Scheffler mentions, among other pieces, several tureens and dishes that were commissioned from the Neustrelitz court goldsmith Gottfried Christian David Petschler, some of which had swans for the feet, others rams. The pieces, which were commissioned in Augsburg, often bear Neuss' maker's mark in combination with the merchant's mark of Johann Alois Seethaler (1796 – 1835), as this piece does. Cf. Also Lempertz auction 1152, lot 712. H 31.5 cm, weight 4,099 g. Marks of Johann Georg Christoph Neuss, 1821/22.