CIRCA 1736-37

This group is one of two which were revolutionary when they were first created at the end of 1736. The creation of these groups introduced the new concept of the ‘crinoline’ figures and groups, which were to become such a feature of Meissen’s production. Although this group is probably Kändler’s own creation, he may have been influenced by contemporary French prints in the creation of this group (no specific print source has been found). This group is first mentioned in Kändler’s December 1736 Work Report, and his description notes that a variant of the model was also made which has a ‘laid ornate coffee-table…made together with plates and fresh fruit as well as an ornate stool on which a pug dog is lying as well as another birdcage with birds’.¹

A very similar group from the Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collection, Basel, is illustrated by Ingelore Menzhausen and Jürgen Karpinski, In Porzellan verzaubert, Basel, 1993, pp. 92-93, and a variant with the couple embracing but also playing cards on a small table which has replaced the birdcage is illustrated pp. 94-95. An ormolu-mounted group in the Shimmerman collection is illustrated by Vanessa Sigalas and Meredith Chilton, All Walks of Life, A Journey with The Alan Shimmerman Collection, Meissen Porcelain Figures of the Eighteenth Century, Stuttgart, 2022, cat. no. 117, pp. 372-375.

1. (A group comprising two figures made for stock, as a well-dressed young man sitting on a green lawn and embracing a neatly dressed lady in an Adrienne,
Beside them is also a small birdcage in which birds perch. However to complement these figures and to change the same, a laid ornate coffee-table has also been made together with plates and fresh fruit as well as an ornate stool on which a pug dog is lying as well as another birdcage with birds).
‘Eine Croppe, welche von zweyen Figuren bestehet, aufs Waarenlager verfertigt, wie ein wohl angekleideter junger Mensch auf einem grünen Raßen sitzet und ein mit einer adriene gebutztes frauenzimmer umbarmet,
Darneben ist auch ein kleiner Vogel-gebauer befindlich, worinnen Vögelein sietzen. Zu solchen Figürgen aber is annoch gefertiget worden, um selbige zu verändern, ein gedecktes und gebutzes Coffee Tischlein, zugleich auch Tellern mit frisch Obstwerk, wieauch noch mit einem verzierten Taberett, worauf ein Mops Hündlein lieget, wie auch noch eines anderen Vogelgebauers, darinnen Vögelein befindl’, cited by Ulrich Pietsch, Die Arbeitsberichte des Meissener Porzellanmodelleurs Johann Joachim Kaendler 1706-1775, Leipzig, 2002, p. 43.