(Not) Forgotten: Cup with a Portrait of Queen Louise of Prussia, the So-Called Luisentasse

The pre-war collections of the Gdańsk Museum of Arts and Crafts included several objects associated with this beloved and revered ruler in nineteenth-century Prussia. These included, among other things, oval amber relief busts of the Prussian royal couple; hand-embroidered pillowcases said to have been slept on by Louise at one of the farms in the Żuławy region during her flight in 1806; and two pairs of cups from the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin, bearing portraits of the Queen and her husband, Frederick William III.

Louise of Prussia went down in the history of the country as an ideal wife, mother, and monarch. Her arranged marriage to Frederick William III proved remarkably successful, and the couple had as many as nine children. Her beauty, authenticity, rejection of rigid court etiquette, devotion to her family and children, as well as her patriotism and commitment to the affairs of her homeland, made her adored by her subjects during her lifetime. Queen Louise died suddenly on 19 July 1810, at the age of just 34, and her premature death further strengthened this image.

The cups that were part of the Museum of Arts and Crafts collection were a typical example of Biedermeier-era commemorative tableware. Such objects were intended to commemorate important figures, events, or places, and were proudly displayed in bourgeois interiors. The type of cup with a portrait of the Queen produced by the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin is known as a Luisentasse. The biscuit-porcelain portraits were created by the sculptor and medallist Leonhard Posch.

Unfortunately, none of the “Gdańsk” Luisentasse have survived to the present day, nor have any photographs of them. We know only that both were purchased as sets with matching cups bearing a portrait of King Frederick William III. One of them, the chocolate cup with a lid and saucer visible in the photograph, was evacuated in crate no. IV to Grabin Zameczek in 1943, and then to Boesenburg near Halle in 1944. In 1948, as a result of a restitution operation, the museum recovered only the saucer from this set.

Funded by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund as part of the Research into Poland’s Wartime Losses programme.