CIRCA 1740, INCISED GOTHIC H. TO BASE

Details

A Meissen figure of the Greeting Harlequin
Circa 1740, incised gothic H. to base
Modelled by J.J. Kändler seated on a tree-stump and bowing deeply with his left leg forward and holding his gilt-edged beige hat in his hands, in a chequered yellow, black, red, pink and turquoise gilt-edged jacket loosely held by a white belt holding his slapstick at his left side, black, red and yellow chequered pantaloons and with a gilt-edged white ruff and cuffs and brown shoes, his grimacing face with lightly rouged cheeks and four black 'beauty spots', on an oval mound base (majority of slapstick lacking)
6¼ in. (16 cm.) high

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis.

Lot Essay

The present lot, remarkable to the detailed treatment of the face, hair and complexion appears to be unrecorded. It does not correspond to any of the numerous examples listed by Dr. Erika Pauls-Eisenbeiss in German Porcelain of the 18th Century (1972), Vol. I, pp. 272-273, and is therefore a major addition to the canon of this model.

Of the recorded examples of this figure, the example with the greatest similarities to the present lot is in the Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, and is illustrated by Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked (Yale University Press 2001), p. 126. Another Harlequin with a chequered jacket and trousers is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, and forms part of the Gift of Mrs Oswald Finney (accession number C.12-1984). See also the more plainly-decorated example of this model with applied rosettes to his pantaloons and applied flowers to the base, sold in these Rooms on 9 July 2001, lot 236.

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