Beautifully decorated large porcelain potpourri jar from the Alexandria Porcelain Works c1905. Footed, ovoid body with internal potpourri bowl and pierced lid. Delicately hand-painted design of poppies to front and back, over an ivory-coloured ground graduating to an antique ivory-colour to top and base. Flower petals highlighted in raised slip with touches of gilt. Antique ivory-coloured, pierced lid with finial. Design in relief to lid and base with gilt touches to high spots. Internally fitted bowl to hold potpourri which sits within the jar, below the lid. Uncommon to find these pieces complete with potpourri bowl and lid. Marked to base with the Alexandria Porcelain Works mark. The jar measures 27 cm to top of finial.
 
Alfred Stellmacher (born 1837) began working at the Imperial & Royal Porcelain Works in Vienna – opening his own factory in 1859 in Turn-Teplitz (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire). Meanwhile, born in 1836, Ernst Wahliss was an Austrian ceramicist who created ornate porcelain and earthenware vessels for the European elite. Wahliss began his pottery career as a traveling salesman for a porcelain factory. He left to establish his own workshop and soon began exporting across Europe. To meet the high demand for his pottery and sculptures, the artist opened his own department store in Vienna’s city centre. His business thrived enabling Wahliss to open a second store in London. In 1894 Wahliss took over the Alfred Stellmacher factory, renaming it the Ernst Wahliss Kunst, Porzellan und Fayence Fabrik. Ernst Wahliss died in 1900 and his sons, Hans and Erich, took over the business. In 1902 they purchased over 500 moulds from the Imperial and Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Vienna and began producing designs using these moulds. In 1905 Hans and Erich renamed the company to the Alexandra Porcelain Works Ernst Wahliss. Pieces marked Royal Vienna are assumed to have been made using these purchased moulds. In 1907 the factory was acquired by Gerhard Martin Wahliss – by 1910 focusing on the production of faience pottery. The factory closed temporarily during WW1, becoming part of Porzellanfabrik Union AG in 1921. Production ceased in 1929.