CIRCA 1745, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK

Although traditionally known as Countess Kösel, this figure was first modelled in late 1744 and Kändler's Taxa records: 1. Dame von Mopß Orden, auf einem Postament stehend in der lincken Hand einen Mopß Hund haltend, auch einen zum Füßen liegend, vor die Prinzessin von Herfordt ...10 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).

An example of this figure from the collection of H.R.H. The Duchess of Kent was sold Christie's London, 12th March 1947, lot 143 and again on 29th April 1954, lot 34. Another was sold Christie's London, 11th October 1976, lot 144. Two figures of the mason and his companion (with marbled pedestals) were sold Christie's London, 13th December 2001, lots 644 and 645. Another sold Christie's London, 3 Jun 2015, lot 67.

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.