Need Help with Porcelain Religious Plaque

Hello Board Friends - I am asking about this for one of the other dealers at the mall my showcases are in. This porcelain plaque measures about 12" x 18". It is hand painted and does have some marks. There are two marks impressed on the back. One looks like the letters MR with a smaller C tucked inside the M. The letters are inside a circle. I can't make heads or tails out of the other mark. It might be a number starting with 3 or it could be some kind of geometric symbol. Sorry about the glare; the lighting in the mall is not the best. There is some writing in pencil on the back but it is too faded to read and may not be in English. Does anyone recognize the mark? Any comments are appreciated. We have been scratching our heads over this one for some time. Thanks!
Don

 

I do imagery not porcelain. Appears to be a rather odd depiction of Salome dancing before Herod & Herodias, with St. John the Baptist behind her. She belongs indoors & he belongs in prison, but if the intent was to remind viewer of whole story in one picture, this would be one way to do it.

Or maybe not. Will consider further. Just looked at the full pic & see the old man appears to be directing the dancing girl to leave with him.

 

Can you rub a little cinnamon into the impressed mark to make the letters stand out? It might be German.

Is this pencil writing? What language?

 

I think that might say Hutschenreuther across the back and this info seems to bear that out.

http://www.antiqforum.com/lib_kpm_hutschenreuther_marks.html

 

Remember, I am the person who cannot read. Just saw about the pencil writing that might not be English. Sorry.

 

Hi cluttered - yes it is writing but it's so faded I can't make out anything. I can tell it's an old script but not what language. I suspected either German or French.
Hutschenreuther looks like a strong possibility so it may very well be German. Thank you say_it_slowly. I'll need to get better measurements on the plaque and the image and I may be able to tell what three digit number is there. Thanks for Salome information, Bronwen. I did have some trouble reconciling an exotic dancer with a religious image. Now it makes sense.

I live near St. Mary's of the Wood and they have done some divesting some of their artwork over the last few years. I think it may have some from there. There were lots of gifts give to the college and the order over the years and I suspect SMWC may be where it came from.
Don

 

Its lovely,but are you sure its not a transfer print?

 

I'll double check but I looked it over pretty good.
Don

 

Except the more I look, the more that explanation falls apart for me. It's very confusing. The wreath of oak leaves on the regal male & the laurel one on her, as well as the rest of their garb, suggest Zeus & Hera. 'Hera' could be applauding the performance (or artist got her hands out of the way). Yet the setting appears not to be Olympus; mere mortals do not just pass by the doorstep there. The old man is dressed like a traveler/pilgrim. He seems a bit old to be the father of the girl, but she is clearly not, as Salome was, the daughter of the house. She looks more like she's stretching than like she's dancing, not a promising interpretation. The old man is impatient to get her away.

Lots of clues here, just not coalescing into a narrative I know. It is sure to illustrate something. I'm leaning to classical mythology, haven't ruled out Biblical. Does not feel allegorical. Certainly not historical. It will nag at me.

 

I am sooo impressed you were able to get that. It seems they made blank plaques for various companies, not just KPM, so hoping if I can ever figure out the scene enough to search for it, will find who finished it. KPM seems to have favored a lot of pre-raphaelite images, not quite like this.

 

I looked at after running it through my photo editor and while most of it was a blur, I did think I recognized the word Hutchenreuther so it was just a short hop to the info.

 

You're right, not John the Baptist, the man with the hat is too old, and 'overdressed'. This is what it would have looked like with John, Salome, Herodias, and Herod:


It could be a depiction of a Northern European scene, Celtic or Germanic historical or allegorical. The king is wearing Roman style dress with bare legs, but he has a beard. That is the way Batavian Celtic leaders are often depicted here in the Netherlands. Sons of prominent families were often raised by Romans, as a way of Romanizing the conquered nations and holding kings to ransom. Of course that backfired, those Romanized sons often became the leaders of revolts against the Romans.
The women on the left look like priestesses to me.
If it is made by Hutschenreuther, it could be a Germanic scene, with a Romanized king.

She does, maybe stretching exercises before her performance?
She seems to be pushing the old man away. Allegorical?
The four roses on the carpet must mean something too.

 

If I understand the page on the KPM site that we are taken to by the great link provided by SIS, Hutschenreuther did not make a finished product, they provided blank plaques to a number of porcelain firms, such as KPM, where they were decorated, so I would look to the porcelain companies for the choice of subject. Since I don't know which other ones to look at, have looked at KPM plaques & see lots of Dante Gabriel Rosetti, the self portrait of Vigée-LeBrun, other pretty & romantic subjects.

I agree with all of AJ's observations & can't rule out her suggestion about the nature of the tale referenced. There is certainly something Odin-esque about the walking man. However, I don't think this artist had any concern for anything like historical accuracy in the clothing; seriously doubt there has ever been foot wear such as that on the regal male. How is the red drapery swirling around the girl attached?

The 2 women inside the building looking diffidently on the scene do look a lot like priestesses. If the structure is a temple rather than a residence, I have even less idea of what is taking place. I wondered about the roses too. For now am regarding them, along with the carpet, simply as one more indicator of luxury, & a way of saying the air smells sweet, unlike in the outer world.

The mountains in the distant background look a lot like Mt. Vesuvius. Have seen many amusing cameos that show Cupid or a goddess engaged in some activity on the far shore of the Bay of Naples, Vesuvius behind them, a touch of local color by the cutter.

There is one more realm that supplied the imagery of the period, a realm in which I have very little knowledge: romantic poetry. I have a print that was something my grandmother had but that I never saw hung with what bizarrely seems to have been very popular at one time. It is a reproduction of a painting by John White Alexander, now in the Boston Museum of Fine Art, inspired by a poem of John Keats, Isabella, or the Pot of Basil, taken from Boccaccio. I more & more think we are looking at something like this.