Tureen with Acis and Galatea in swan service decoration Oval tureen on four feet, the narrow sides designed as dolphins, the long sides as masks of river gods. The body is lavishly decorated in relief with sculpted shells, snails and corals, with shell-shaped cartouches painted with flowers on the long sides. The side handles in the shape of nymphs with fish tails. The shell-profile lid is inlaid with shells, snails and flowers. Topped with a fully sculpted group of figures depicting the nymph Galatea on a dolphin, accompanied by her lover Acis. Both are partially enveloped in a red robe, which they throw up together to form an arch, which acts as a handle for the lid. Polychrome painting with gold. Flower garland damaged/remaining; designed by Johann Joachim Kaendler. Model no. 05028, crossed swords mark. H. 44 cm. W. 36 cm. The dinner service, originally comprising approx. 2200 pieces, commissioned by Heinrich Count von Brühl, director of the Meissen porcelain manufactory under August III, in 1736, is the most magnificent porcelain service of the 18th century and a central work of Meissen porcelain art. It was designed by Johann Joachim Kaendler and modelled between 1737 and 1741 with the help of his colleagues Johann Friedrich Eberlein and Johann Gottlieb Ehder. The shell-shaped relief decoration in combination with swans and herons and the design with fully sculpturally modelled figures from the mythological sea world are characteristic. The sculptural decoration is completed by fine Indian flower decoration. Cf. Pietsch, Swan Service. Meissen porcelain for Heinrich Graf von Brühl, p. 149, no. 16. A monumental porcelain tureen from the so-called "swan service" with elaborately designed lid showing the mythological figures of Galatea on a dolphin and Acis. Flower garland damaged/restored. Crossed swords mark. Meissen. After 1973.