Live Auction 6753CONTINENTAL CERAMICS
Two Nymphenburg figures of putti emblematic of Mercury and Flora from the Series of Putti as Olympian gods
Lot 76THE PROPERTY OF A GENTLEMAN

Two Nymphenburg figures of putti emblematic of Mercury and Flora from the Series of Putti as Olympian gods

CIRCA 1755-60, MERCURY INCISED · IP AND FLORA INCISED 3

Price Realised

GBP 2,987

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Two Nymphenburg figures of putti emblematic of Mercury and Flora from the Series of Putti as Olympian gods
Circa 1755-60, Mercury incised · IP and Flora incised 3
Modelled by Franz Anton Bustelli, Mercury in a winged green hat and with winged ankles, holding a horn and seated astride a brown tree-stump on a scroll-moulded shaped base, a caduceus at his feet, Flora standing scantily draped in a pink-lined yellow robe holding a posy in her right hand, a pink rose tied with a blue band in her hair, on a shaped, flat scroll-moulded base enriched with green and gilding (Mercury with restoration to hat, hat with one wing lacking, restoration to right hand and instrument, restored area to base at back, Flora with damage to left hand and chipping to edge of base)
Mercury 4 1/8 in. (10.5 cm.) and Spring 3 7/8 in. (10 cm.) high (2)

Specialist note

According to an 1760 inventory of forms, the series originally consisted of twenty-six figures, representing the Olympian gods. Although Bustelli most probably intended the male and female deities to be paired together, no precise grouping can be ascertained and only twenty-three figures have so far been accounted for. Cf. Alfred Ziffer, Nymphenburger Porzellan, Sammlung Bäuml (Stuttgart, 1997), pp. 23, 24, 26 & 29, no. 16 (Flora) and no. 25 (Mercury).