Lot Essay
Count Heinrich Brühl was minister and favorite to Augustus III. He was appointed administrator of the Meissen factory from 1733 to 1763. By tradition Brühl was a man famed for his fashion sense. His tailor was thus an important part of his entourage. However, when the tailor's ambitions made him ask for an invitation to dine at court, the Count found the suggestion beyond the pale and well above the tailor's station. To put him in his place, the Count requested Kändler to make a figure of the tailor which he could place on his table and thus fulfill his empty promises. Kändler's undoubted satiric wit and sense of the ridiculous is here preserved. See Len and Yvonne Adams, Meissen Portrait Figures, London, 1987, p. 188 and 192; also see R. Röntgen, The Book of Meissen, Atglen, PA, 1996, p. 44-45 and the back dust jacket cover, for two full page illustrations of this model. Also according to Berling ed., Meissen an Illustrated History, p. 35, this group is described in the Meissen records of 1744 as the 'Brühl tailor', however no reference to a particular person or event is mentioned.