This extraordinary porcelain bird is among a group of animal models adapted from the series originally created in the early 1730s for Augustus the Strong, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony. Augustus' plans for the building of the Japanese Palace in Dresden were the most ambitious of all his projects. The new building incorporated a smaller royal palace, which had housed a porcelain collection; it was to be a Porzellanschloss, entirely constructed around and devoted to the porcelain collections. The Great Gallery - the animal gallery - was to contain porcelain examples of both native and exotic specimens and even some mythical beasts. In the late 19th and 20th centuries Meissen reintroduced a few of these fantastic models in celebration of this grand tradition.

See Samuel Wittwer, Die Galerie der Meissener Tiere, Düsseldorf, Band I, 2004, pp. 196-197 and p. 333. The present example is based on a model originally conceived and executed by Johann Joachim Kändler in 1732. The model was reintroduced by Erich Oehme in July-August of 1921 and again by Manfred Wünsche in 1964.