A very similar tea bowl to this example exists in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (BK-17326) where the decoration has been attributed to the workshop of Abraham Seuter. Abraham and his brother Bartholomäus were hausmaler, independant ‘home painters’ whose workshop in Augsburg specialised in painting gilt and chinoiserie scenes onto the porcelain produced by the Meissen manufactory. The exterior of the tea bowl is embellished with an iridescent dark olive green ground, decorated with a bird and insects in flight and a branch hanging from rockwork. The olive green glaze is rarely seen on Meissen tablewares, and may be the result of firing a light, copper-green glaze at too high a temperature, causing the colour to blacken (Pietsch, p.295).
