A MEISSEN MODEL OF A PEACOCK (STEHENDER PFAU)

CIRCA 1725, BLUE CADUCEUS MARK TO THE UNDERSIDE, MODELLED BY GEORG FRITZCHE

Details
A MEISSEN MODEL OF A PEACOCK (STEHENDER PFAU)
Circa 1725, blue caduceus mark to the underside, modelled by Georg Fritzche
With green neck, purple and blue plumed breast, brown body and green tail feathers standing before a tree-stump, the stump hollowed to receive a candlestick fitment
7in. (18.4cm.) high
Provenance
Erich von Goldschmidt-Rothschild, Herman Ball & Paul Graupe, Berlin, 23-25 March 1931, lot 449, tafel 78 (as one of a pair - this example illustrated on the right)

Lot Essay

Most of the extant examples of this model are in public collections including five mounted examples in the Residenz, Munich; a mounted pair with caduceus marks in the Musee du Louvre, Paris; a single unmounted example in the Historisches Museum, Bern; the mounted example from the Kramarsky Collection sold at Christie's New York, 30 October 1993, lot 25 and now in the collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Also recorded are the unmounted example from the Mhsam Collection, sold at Glckselig, Vienna, April 1925, lot 43 and a mounted example sold Christie's London, 24 February 1997, lot 273. The whereabouts of the pair to the present example sold with it at the Erich von Goldschmidt-Rothschild sale is not known.

Cf. Rainer Rckert, Meissener Porzellan, Munich, 1966, no. 1100, plate 270 and Yvonne Hackenbrock, Meissen and other Continental Porcelain, Faience and Enamel, The Irwin Untermyer Collection, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1956, no. 14, plate 8.

It is interesting to note that most unmounted examples are decorated in a muted palette of earth tones whereas the gilt-bronze mounted examples are painted in the bright colors associated with Arita porcelain.