By Cornelius Funcke, faience in brick-red shards. Slender baluster shape with an octagonal cross-section, raised foot, rounded shoulder, and stepped neck with a profiled attachment; corresponding octagonal lid with an acorn-shaped knob. Surface covered with sharp fire decoration featuring stylized Ottoman sailing ships in blue and manganese violet painting against a light turquoise blue background representing the sea with individually painted coral reefs in reddish-brown; foot and neck with a blue and white corded frieze. Condition: hairline crack in the neck, knob glued. Height: 39 cm. The vase is exemplary of the early faience production of the Berlin manufactory by Cornelius Funcke, of art historical significance, as it combines European stylistic features of the Baroque in form with technical and artistic influences from the Orient - turquoise glaze and decoration inspired by Ottoman ships. The decoration is clearly influenced by Iznik ceramics from around 1600 or the 17th century. Funcke must have seen originals of this kind, as a comparison with an Iznik flask vase in the David Collection in Copenhagen shows (Inv. No. 11/1971), where both the arrangement of the ships and the color harmony essentially correspond. Funcke, who founded his own faience manufactory in Berlin in 1699, not only developed new forms but also extraordinary colors for his faience. In 1712, he boasted to King Friedrich I that he was capable of producing vase bases with red shards like those of the Dresden (Meissen) porcelain manufactory, but surpassing them: "of all kinds of colors except porcelain, the like of which has not yet been seen from other manufacturers". Such decorations were certainly only found on a small group of Funcke vessels at this time, mainly with the rare ship decoration. Comparative pieces to the present vase in form and decoration can be found, among others, in the Kunstgewerbemuseum in Berlin (pair of lid vases, around 1701; Inv. No. 1937, 44a, b), the Hetjens Museum in Düsseldorf (lid vase, around 1700, formerly Otto Riesebeiter Collection, Inv. No. R 228), the Stiftung Stadtmuseum Berlin (flute vase, Inv. No. II 71/484 B), the Museum für Angewandte Kunst in Cologne (lid vase, Inv. No. Ov 245), and the Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten in Potsdam (pair of baluster flasks, 1st century, 18th century, Inv. No. Ks VIII, 46). See Swantje Peibst and Horst Mauter: "Barock-Fayencen. Kurmärkische Manufakturen (...)", ed. Märkisches Museum, Berlin 1994, fig. 46, p. 162, 212; Christiane Keisch and Horst Mauter: Cat. "Herrliche Künste und Manufacturen (...)", Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, 2001, pp. 54-55, fig. 60, cat. no. 62-63. A rare Berlin faience vase and cover manufactured by Cornelius Funcke. Chips, minor hairline crack to the narrow, knob glued. Berlin. Manufactory Cornelius Funcke. Around 1700-1710.