Lot Essay
Commedia dell'Arte figures in delftware are unusual and the present form appears to be unrecorded. A model more commonly seen is that of a seated monkey on a mound base, see Marion S. van Aken-Fehmers, Delfts aardewerk, Geschiedenis van een nationaal product, The Hague, 1990, p. 230, cat. no. 102. Figural cisterns or jugs modelled as either comedy or bacchic figures include the cistern dated 1757 in the Musée Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire, Bruxelles, see J. Helbig, Faïences Hollandaises, Brussels, 1958, Vol. II, p. 50, fig. 34 and the cistern illustrated by Robert D. Aronson and Suzanne M.R. Lambooy, Dutch Delftware, Facing East: Oriental Sources for Dutch Delftware Chinoiserie Figures, Amsterdam 2010, pp. 128-129, no. 75.