Large, magnificent Meissen element vase "The Water" in the shape of a jug. From the "Four Elements" series. A bulbous body over an oval foot with a stepped, recessed neck with a bulge, merging into a shell-shaped spout in relief. Next to it a garland of flowers and shells in relief. Curved handle with crowning cupid in bundled reed leaves on the side. Decor of naturalistic and mythological elements of the marine world in high relief, partly modelled in full relief as a symbol of the element of water. Large swimming dolphins on the foot, the wall modelled in relief with a Nereid emerging from the sea. On the shoulder of the vessel is the sea god Neptune sitting in a shell, steering four hippocampi with vegetal reins. Circumferentially undulating sea surface with a depiction of a war fleet on the front. Sparing polychrome painting. Designed by Johann Joachim Kaendler, 1741, model no. 320, remainder/best; crossed swords mark. H. 66 cm. The original version in white porcelain was part of a five-piece set as a gift from the Elector Frederick Augustus III, son of Augustus the Strong, to the French King Louis XV; due to the political situation following the War of the Austrian Succession (1740 - 1748), the four element vases remained in Dresden and can be seen today in a new representation in the reconstructed porcelain cabinet in the Dresden Residenzschloss. See Loesch, cat. The porcelain cabinet, figs. 2, 4; Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden, inv. no. PE 101a. A monumental jug-shaped porcelain vase representing the element water with applied and sparingly painted decoration of the sea contributing to the god Neptune and his world. Restored. Chipped. Crossed swords mark. Meissen. 20th century.