CIRCA 1756, PRESSNUMMER 2

Details

A Meissen figure of a drummer and fife player from the Cris de Paris Series
Circa 1756, Pressnummer 2
Modelled by J.J. Kändler and P. Reinicke, his white coat with puce and gilt indianische Blumen, gilt buttons and yellow ribbons at the shoulders, puce breeches and yellow shoes, the large cylindrical drum at his waist secured by iron-red and turquoise sashes, playing the flute with his left hand and holding a drum-stick in his right, standing before a tree-stump on a circular scroll-moulded mound base applied with flowers and foliage (restoration to flute and drum-stick, small chip to hair ribbon and a leaf, minute chip to right thumb)
5 3/8 in. (13.7 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

It is difficult to be certain if this figure was derived from an engraving by Comte de Caylus of the drawing by Edmé Bouchardon (from which Kändler had modelled an earlier figure of a fife and drum player) or the drawing (No. 5) by Christophe Hüet (from which P. Reinicke had modelled a Cris de Paris drummer and fife player). Whatever the case, this model is probably the most fluid in its execution and interpretation from a drawn source.
For an illustration of Kändler's figure and Bouchardon's drawing, see Len and Yvonne Adams, Meissen Portrait Figures (London, 1987), p. 95; and for an illustration of Reinicke's model and Hüet's drawing see Len and Yvonne Adams, ibid. (1987), p. 118, and also the example sold in our Geneva Rooms on 13th May 1985, lot 96 (Hüet's drawing also illustrated), and in these Rooms on 12th October 1995, lot 16.

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