CIRCA 1745

The mason was first modelled in 1743, and Kändler's Taxa records: 1. Frey Maurer mit Schurzfell und anderer Zubehör auf einem postament wohl angekleidet stehend, in der einen Hand einem Grund Riss habend, neben welchen ein postament, darauff Winckel-Haacken, Transporteur Circul, Bley Waage und dergl. liegen. ...6 Thlr.-.

After Freemasonry was suppressed by the Pope in 1738, the Archbishop Elector of Cologne, Clemens August of Bavaria (1700-1761), founded the Mopsorden, an alternative pseudo-masonic order in Germany and Sweden to provide members with a legitimate substitute for masonic social rites.¹ Augustus III, King of Poland and Elector of Saxony was the grand-master of the Order in Saxony. The Order was active between 1740 and 1782, admitted women, and was principally composed of Roman Catholics. The pug-dog, symbolising the attributes of devotion and fidelity, was used as its emblem (pugs were also the favourite dogs of Count Brühl, the Director of Meissen and King Augustus's Prime Minister).

A figure of the mason was sold Christie's London, 2nd October 1979, lot 171, and another on 24th February 2003, lot 104.

See Dr. Erika Pauls-Eisenbeiss, German Porcelain of the 18th Century, London, 1972, Vol. I, pp. 204-207 for the freemason formerly in the Emma Budge Collection, and lady of the Mopsorden now in the Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collection, Basel. Also see the example in the Victoria and Albert Museum, no. C.796-1936, and the Untermyer Collection examples, also with different pedestals, illustrated by Yvonne Hackenbroch, Meissen and other Continental Porcelain, Faience and Enamel in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, London, 1956, pls. 22 and 23.


1. For a discussion of the Mopsorden, see Erich Köllmann, 'Der Mopsorden' Keramos, no. 50, October 1970, pp. 71-82.