FINE CERAMICS AND WORKS OF ART
Royal Splendour
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A
very rare Meissen Figure of Harlequin with a birdcage, modelled by
J.F.Eberlein, seated wearing an elaborately scaled and py’d costume, its
sleeves and trousers pinned with playing cards, with a rosette in his hat,
his grimacing smiling face is painted with the moon and the star on one
cheek, he holds aloft a dove in his cuffed right hand, his left hand
resting on his knee, the open birdcage is set to one side and a seated cat
with ginger markings sits looking up at the dove.
Circa 1745.
Height: 51⁄2 ins. (13.7 cms.)
Mark: crossed swords mark in underglaze blue.
Provenance: Mrs. Forsythe Wickes; C. Douglas Dillon
The factory records of August 1743 list by Eberlein ‘Einen Arlequin, so einen Vogel in der hand, neben sich einenVogelbauer une eine Katze zu Fuessen hat’.
The
Model is referred to in the notes of Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1696-1749)
for August 1743. ‘Einem Arlequin, so einem Vogel in der Hand, neben sich
einem Vogelbauer und eine Katze su Fuessen hat’ (A Harlequin with a bird
in his hand, a birdcage next to him and a cat close to his feet). There
are similar examples in the Porzellansammlung at the Zwinger,