A VERY RARE MEISSEN WHITE EWER (Untierkrug)
Made for the Japanese Palace in Dresden
Circa 1732
Acquired by a private collector, Hong Kong
Marks
Blue crossed swords mark inside the lower lip
Measurements
58 cm high
Condition
Extensively fire cracked, restoration to left horn and left leg, right leg with retouches to glaze, claws and with one section restuck, perhaps at the time of manufacture.
Formed as a seated chimera, its jaws wide open, its horns curled back to form the handles, its collar formed as a garland of fruit and flowers centered on a horned satyr’s mask above a chevron breastplate, with furry forepaws and clawed hind feet.
First modelled by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner in 1728 and inspired by an engraving in Montfaucon,
„L’Antiquiteexpliquee“, Paris, 1719-1724. The engraving mistakenly identifies the model as an Antique. The piece actually illustrated is more likely an Italian 16th Century bronze. For a more extensive discussion of this model see Y. Hackenbroch, „Bronzes and Other Metalwork and Sculpture in the Irwin Untermyer Collection“, Norwich, 1962, pp. xviii-xix, fig. 21 and
H. Morley-Fletcher, „The Pflueger Collection“, London, 1993, p. 34.
As is the case with almost all the large white pieces made by Kirchner and Kaendler in the early 1730s, the present lot is heavily fire-cracked and has undergone various stages of restoration.
Provenance
Porzellansammlung Dresden, sale Lepke, Berlin, 1919
Siegfried Salz, sale Cassirer & Helbing, Berlin, 26 March, 1929, lot 179 (sold for 2,600 RM)
Literature
Ruth Berges, „Collector’s Choice“, South Brunswick and New York, 1967, fig. 99
