.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
A similar example is illustrated by Carl Albiker, Die Meissner Porzellantiere im 18. Jahrhundert (Berlin, 1959), no. 255, and for the two in the Ansbach Residenz, see Rainer Rükert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810 (Munich, 1966), pl. 263, nos. 1060 and 1061. A version of this model and its pendant, a Sultan on a rhinoceros, from the Collection of S.B. Joel, was sold by Sotheby's on 29th May 1935, lot 33. A similar single example of this model (the elephant) from the Collection of the Late S. Oscar Dusendschon was sold by Sotheby's on 6th December 1960, lot 137, and others were sold in these Rooms on 5th October 1981, lot 194 and on 7th July 2003, lot 116 (illustrated by Hermann Jedding, 'Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts in Hamburger Privatbesitz' Exhibition Catalogue [Hamburg, 1982], p. 210, no. 221 and col. pl. XIII).
Kändler's Taxa of March 1741 records: Einem grossen Elephanten; and Reinicke's of November 1743 mentions: 1 Elephanten 9 Zoll hoch mit einer verzeiten Decke uberhanged, in Thon bossirt.
The intelligence, strength and bravery of the elephant has caused them to be credited with a wide range of symbolic properties including nobility, monarchy, courage, strength, piety, temperance and honesty. Traditional temple guardians, they are generally emblematic of good fortune. They were also invaluable in warfare, and it was in this capacity that the elephant was at first most famed in Europe. Although incorporated into art from Antiquity, as they were not indigenous to Europe they were very rarely seen, and depictions of them can be far from accurate. It is clear that the painter who decorated this elephant had never seen one, as it has been given markings resembling fur.
In China and Japan, where early elephant populations had become extinct, artistic depictions of them were rather stylised. The European fashion for all things exotic and Oriental in the 17th Century ensured the importation of models of elephants from China and Japan, executed in a variety of media including porcelain. In the 17th Century two Kakiemon models of standing elephants with raised trunks were recorded at Burghley House, Lincolnshire. Another, mounted as a clock, is in the Munich Residenz; and a fourth is the Dresden Porzellansammlung, see J. Ayers, O. Impey, J. Mallet et. al, 'Porcelain for Palaces, The Fashion for Japan in Europe 1650-1750', British Museum Exhibition Catalogue (London, 1990), nos. 147 and 160. These elephants are slightly peculiar-looking creatures, modelled with rather creased trunks, almond-shaped eyes and humanoid ears, wearing elaborately decorated saddle-cloths on their backs.
The most important and influential painter at Meissen, J.G. Höroldt, must have been familiar with such depictions. Sheet 18 of his Schulz-Codex sketchbook shows an elephant which is very similar in feel to this model, and it is complete with an Oriental grandee in exotic chinoiserie dress. A white variant of this group, with an elephant carrying soldiers on its back, was in the C.H. Fischer Collection, sale Lempertz, Cologne, 24th October 1906, lot 749.
Kändler's Taxa of March 1741 records: Einem grossen Elephanten; and Reinicke's of November 1743 mentions: 1 Elephanten 9 Zoll hoch mit einer verzeiten Decke uberhanged, in Thon bossirt.
The intelligence, strength and bravery of the elephant has caused them to be credited with a wide range of symbolic properties including nobility, monarchy, courage, strength, piety, temperance and honesty. Traditional temple guardians, they are generally emblematic of good fortune. They were also invaluable in warfare, and it was in this capacity that the elephant was at first most famed in Europe. Although incorporated into art from Antiquity, as they were not indigenous to Europe they were very rarely seen, and depictions of them can be far from accurate. It is clear that the painter who decorated this elephant had never seen one, as it has been given markings resembling fur.
In China and Japan, where early elephant populations had become extinct, artistic depictions of them were rather stylised. The European fashion for all things exotic and Oriental in the 17th Century ensured the importation of models of elephants from China and Japan, executed in a variety of media including porcelain. In the 17th Century two Kakiemon models of standing elephants with raised trunks were recorded at Burghley House, Lincolnshire. Another, mounted as a clock, is in the Munich Residenz; and a fourth is the Dresden Porzellansammlung, see J. Ayers, O. Impey, J. Mallet et. al, 'Porcelain for Palaces, The Fashion for Japan in Europe 1650-1750', British Museum Exhibition Catalogue (London, 1990), nos. 147 and 160. These elephants are slightly peculiar-looking creatures, modelled with rather creased trunks, almond-shaped eyes and humanoid ears, wearing elaborately decorated saddle-cloths on their backs.
The most important and influential painter at Meissen, J.G. Höroldt, must have been familiar with such depictions. Sheet 18 of his Schulz-Codex sketchbook shows an elephant which is very similar in feel to this model, and it is complete with an Oriental grandee in exotic chinoiserie dress. A white variant of this group, with an elephant carrying soldiers on its back, was in the C.H. Fischer Collection, sale Lempertz, Cologne, 24th October 1906, lot 749.