The prevailing fashion for ormolu and the popularity of Meissen groups saw the rise in adaptation of many porcelain models to create lavish and exuberant mantel clocks during the reign of Louis XVl.. The refined work of the surrounding gilt oak tree and the ingeniously curving pierced ormolu trunk behind the elephans demonstrates the creativity and resourcefulness of the marchands-mercier in combining varied, delicate and precious materials to create a true objet de luxe. Related examples displaying a related pierced ormolu base and foliate trellis work include that sold anonymously in these rooms, 12 November 2019, lot 109 (£122,500 including premium) and Ader, Picard, Tajan Auctions, Paris, 15 April 189, lot 82.
This exceptional Meissen model of an elephant draped with a blanket, with a sultan seated on a howdah and an elephant driver, known as a mahout, on the elephant's neck is attributed to Peter Reinecke and Johann Joachim Kändler on the basis of an extract dated 1743: 1 Elephanten 9 Zoll hoch mit einer verzierten Decke überhangend, in Thon bossirt (Carl Albiker, Die Meissner Porzellantiere im 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1959, p. 27, no. 255). A near match of the present porcelain model was sold anonymously Christie's, 21 November 2005, lot 107.
In China and Japan, where early elephant populations had become extinct, artistic depictions of elephants were rather stylised. The European fashion for all things exotic and Oriental in the 17th Century ensured the importation of models of elephants from China and Japan, executed in a variety of media including porcelain.