A few years ago a remarkably pair of porcelain vases were rediscovered in a
bank vault in Gothenburg, Sweden, by the surprised grand children of the
scottish-swedish indistrialist James Keiller, and thence promptly exhibited
at  the Rohss Museum of Arts and Crafts.
The two urns are well over 3 ft plus lid. They were made in China in the
late 17th/early 18th century and possibly mentioned by the Jesuit missionary
Pere d4Entrecolles in his letter from the Kiangsi province in 1722.
They were ordered by "businessmen i Canton" i.e. the British East India
Company and given to the sister of King George I, Sophia Charlotta of
Hannover, Queen of Prussia, at Charlottenburg in Berlin.
During the reign of her son Frederick Vilhelm I in the year 1717 they are
known to have belonged to a group of porcelain traded for some 600 mounted
soldiers (dragoons) by the Emperor August the Strong, and since then
exhibited as the Dragoon vases. One of the vases is repaired with what might
be pieces of early Meissen porcelain.
In 1920 they were sold from the Dresden museum Zwinger by the German state
to raise money for paying war debts. Buyer was James Keiller. These two
vases will now be sold by the Keiller family estate. More information can be
obtained by mail to [log in to unmask]