Sugar bowl (Chocolate service)

Mark: Coat of arms of Bavaria (in blue) and 826 (engraved).

Spherical sugar-bowl with a pierced lid, standing on three gilded sphinxes. A white background with a matt and brilliant gilded decoration of borders and bands of foliage and other decorative motifs in the Empire style. Rectangular reserve with a polychrome view of the Palace of the Baroness Villa-Seca, with the legend "Maison de la Baronne de Villa - Seca, à Baden".

Maria Theresia Katharina Anna von Blumendorf (1781-1849) married for a second time in 1820 to the 2nd Baron of Vila-Seca, Rodrigo Navarro de Andrade, Minister Plenipotentiary of the Empire of Brazil at the Viennese court. He was the attorney of Queen Maria II, who at that time was seven years of age, in her marriage to her uncle, Prince Miguel, which took place in Vienna in 1826 and was later annulled.

During the so-called Sorgenthal Period (1784-1864), all the pieces made at Vienna were dated. Since 1793, the general rule had been for the last two digits of the date of manufacture to be engraved upon the piece; from 1800 onwards, it was the last three digits that were engraved, always beginning with an "8" that was larger than the following two digits.

(Extract from Catálogo do Inventário de Cerâmica do Palácio Nacional de Queluz, Inês Ferro, pp. 96 and 97).