The present figures of the Bird Catcher and the Bee Keeper are from a South German figurative tradition which can be found in porcelain, ivory and small bronze and wood statuettes. Modelers for the porcelain factories, such as Kaendler and Bustelli chose to depict caricatures of country life. The sculptors such as Troger, Kruger and even Permosser and Tietz depicted beggars and peasants often as menacing and unpleasant characters. The grotesque nature of these ivory statuettes and the extraordinary quality of the carving technique would suggest an artist of South German origin, working in the early 18th Century.