'The Cryes of London', are a group of sixteen figures of street traders, of which eight are male and eight are female. They were almost certainly modelled by J.J. Kändler and/or Peter Reinicke between 1750 and 1755. Unfortunately the lack of contemporary documentation in the Meissen archives makes a firm attribution to the modeller impossible. However, the variations in size and differences in modelling would suggest that both Kändler and Reinicke were involved in series. The figures are modelled after engravings from the series The Cryes of the City of London Drawne after the Life, by Marcellus Laroon II. Laroon was a Dutch painter who was a friend and contemporary of Hogarth.

Several editions of Laroon’s The Cryes were produced from 1687 onwards, with the engravings arranged in pairs, alternating between men and women. The Meissen figures from this series were also produced in pairs, although they do not follow Laroon's groupings. Only 15 of the original engravings were executed in porcelain and it seems likely that they were intended to form a group, due to the presence of incised or impressed numerals on the underside of some of the early models, giving an indication of the pairings within the group. Interestingly, some of the models depict people who are recorded by name and occupation, noted in the registers of the time. For example, the present lot, the only multi-figure group in the series, which depicts a beggar woman with two children, shows Nan Miles, who by repute, rented children to pose as her own destitute off-spring in more to generate a more lucrative income. For a discussion of this group, see Vanessa Sigalas & Meredith Chilton, All Walks of Life, A Journey with The Alan Shimmerman Collection, Stuttgart, 2022, pp. 222-223, 245, cat. no. 63.