Lot Essay
The C couronné poinçion was a tax mark employed on any alloy containing copper between March 1745 and Febraury 1749.
The flower-bearing females symbolise both the Sense Odoratus or Smell and the Season of Spring. Lightly-clad Spring, accompanied by a basket-bearing putti stands on a flower-strewn plinth, while her shawl-wrapped companion stands beside a scenting cassolette supported on a rose-draped pedestal accompanied by a hound that likewise symbolises Odoratus or the Sense of Smell. These figures, which are paired from a group of four emblematic of the Seasons and five emblematic of the Senses, may also be intended to symbolise Summer and Winter, with one wearing a dress enriched with Ceres cornflowers, while the other is more heavily wrapped in a richly flowered dress. The figures were modelled in the later 1740's by Johann Friedrich Eberlein (d.1749), who following stays in Dresden and London had joined Johan Joachin Kaendler at Meissen in 1735 and specialised in the modelling of emblematical figures. Shortly after manufacture, the figures are likely to have been mounted as candelabra (they formerly had flowered candle-branches) by one of the Parisian marchands-merciers such as Edmé-François Gersaint, who specialised in the retailing of 'Porcelain de Saxe'. The latter, who traded at the Pagoda Man (A La Pagode) was even accused of removing the marks from the bases of Meissen pieces (C. Sargentson, Merchants and Luxury Markets, London, 1996, p.76). Another figure of Spring, together with one of Summer, is illustrated in U. Erichsen-Firle, Figurliches Porzellan, Cologne, 1975, no.129 a & b.
The voluted pedestals, with guilloche-fretted balustrades wrapped by Roman-acanthus and fruiting-branches, correspond to the 'picturesque' style such as the bronze-worker Antoine Le Lievre adopted for his 'Pluto' fire-dogs, which likewise bear the crowned 'c' brand introduced during the later 1740's (see H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, p.115).
The flower-bearing females symbolise both the Sense Odoratus or Smell and the Season of Spring. Lightly-clad Spring, accompanied by a basket-bearing putti stands on a flower-strewn plinth, while her shawl-wrapped companion stands beside a scenting cassolette supported on a rose-draped pedestal accompanied by a hound that likewise symbolises Odoratus or the Sense of Smell. These figures, which are paired from a group of four emblematic of the Seasons and five emblematic of the Senses, may also be intended to symbolise Summer and Winter, with one wearing a dress enriched with Ceres cornflowers, while the other is more heavily wrapped in a richly flowered dress. The figures were modelled in the later 1740's by Johann Friedrich Eberlein (d.1749), who following stays in Dresden and London had joined Johan Joachin Kaendler at Meissen in 1735 and specialised in the modelling of emblematical figures. Shortly after manufacture, the figures are likely to have been mounted as candelabra (they formerly had flowered candle-branches) by one of the Parisian marchands-merciers such as Edmé-François Gersaint, who specialised in the retailing of 'Porcelain de Saxe'. The latter, who traded at the Pagoda Man (A La Pagode) was even accused of removing the marks from the bases of Meissen pieces (C. Sargentson, Merchants and Luxury Markets, London, 1996, p.76). Another figure of Spring, together with one of Summer, is illustrated in U. Erichsen-Firle, Figurliches Porzellan, Cologne, 1975, no.129 a & b.
The voluted pedestals, with guilloche-fretted balustrades wrapped by Roman-acanthus and fruiting-branches, correspond to the 'picturesque' style such as the bronze-worker Antoine Le Lievre adopted for his 'Pluto' fire-dogs, which likewise bear the crowned 'c' brand introduced during the later 1740's (see H. Ottomeyer, P. Pröschel et. al., Vergoldete Bronzen, Munich, 1986, p.115).