CIRCA 1755, THE MOUNT PROBABLY 18TH CENTURY

This group, traditionally called La Toilette der Prinzessin, was derived from Jacques Philippe Le Bas's engraving of Chardin's La Toilette du Matin, now in the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm. Le Bas executed the engraving in 1741, the same year that the painting was exhibited at the Paris Salon, to great acclaim. In 1749 it was bought by the Queen Luisa Ulrica of Sweden, Frederick the Great's sister. As the Hans Syz catalogue points out, this group could possibly be the one described in the 1765 Meissen Preiss-Courante as 'Groupe die Toilette von 2 Figuren'. The group has also been called La Toilette der Prinzessin, perhaps in reference to the ownership of Chardin's painting, or possibly in reference to the coquettish way in which the girl admires herself in the mirror. For a similar example (lacking the pug dog) in the Ansbach Residenz see Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, Munich, 1966, p. 250, no. 1022. Another is illustrated by Hans Syz et al., Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, Washington, 1979, no. 293. An example from the Margaret Cadman Collection was sold by Christie's in London on 20 November 2002, lot 444 and another in these Rooms on 25 February 1991, lot 96.