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Lot Essay
Unusually, this lively model was not copied at other factories and although it is popularly known as 'Harlequin and Columbine', it has been suggested that the woman might be one of the inamorata.1. It was reproduced in the 1930s at Meissen and is illustrated in the sales catalogue, 'Staatliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Meissen', Italienische Komödie, pl. IX.
Kändler refers to this model in his Taxa between 1740 and 1748, '1. dergl. (Groupgen) aus 2. Figuren bestehend, da ein Arlequin neben einem Frauenzimmer sizt, solche zu caressi, die ihn mit der Pritzsche schlägt' (1 group of 2 figures, in which a Harlequin sits near a woman so as to caress her, she hits him with a breadstick)2, and again in his worknotes for January 1743, 'Ein Groupgen aus 2 Figuren bestehend, da ein Arlequin neben einem Frauenzimmer sitzt, solche zu caressieren, die ihn mit der Pritsche schlägt' (A group of two figures, in which a harlequin seated beside a woman, intending to caress her, while she is hitting him with the slapstick).3
For a comparable example (where Harlequin is similarly dressed in a tunic painted with playing cards and striped trousers), in the Haus zum Kirschgarten, Historische Museum, Basel, see Ingelore Menzhausen, In Porzellan verzaubert, Die Figuren Johann Joachim Kändlers in Meissen aus der Sammlung Pauls-Eisenbeiss Basel, Basel, 1993, p. 137, and for the example in the George R. Gardiner Collection, see Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, pp. 305-306, no. 94, where other examples of the model are listed.
1. See Meredith Chilton, ibid., pp. 74-79, where the author describes in detail the role of inamoratas in the Commedia dell'Arte groups created at Meissen. While Kändler simply identifies them as 'ladies' or 'females', the author explains that the females could be interpreted as an actress in the role of a young and fashionable wife, or as an aristocratic lady of the court in masquerade.
2. See Ingelore Menzhausen, In Porzellan verzaubert, Die Figuren Johann Joachim Kändlers in Meissen aus der Sammlung Pauls-Eisenbeiss Basel, Basel, 1993, p. 137.
3. See Reiner Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810, Munich, 1966, p. 168, no. 868.
Kändler refers to this model in his Taxa between 1740 and 1748, '1. dergl. (Groupgen) aus 2. Figuren bestehend, da ein Arlequin neben einem Frauenzimmer sizt, solche zu caressi, die ihn mit der Pritzsche schlägt' (1 group of 2 figures, in which a Harlequin sits near a woman so as to caress her, she hits him with a breadstick)
For a comparable example (where Harlequin is similarly dressed in a tunic painted with playing cards and striped trousers), in the Haus zum Kirschgarten, Historische Museum, Basel, see Ingelore Menzhausen, In Porzellan verzaubert, Die Figuren Johann Joachim Kändlers in Meissen aus der Sammlung Pauls-Eisenbeiss Basel, Basel, 1993, p. 137, and for the example in the George R. Gardiner Collection, see Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, pp. 305-306, no. 94, where other examples of the model are listed.
1. See Meredith Chilton, ibid., pp. 74-79, where the author describes in detail the role of inamoratas in the Commedia dell'Arte groups created at Meissen. While Kändler simply identifies them as 'ladies' or 'females', the author explains that the females could be interpreted as an actress in the role of a young and fashionable wife, or as an aristocratic lady of the court in masquerade.
2. See Ingelore Menzhausen, In Porzellan verzaubert, Die Figuren Johann Joachim Kändlers in Meissen aus der Sammlung Pauls-Eisenbeiss Basel, Basel, 1993, p. 137.
3. See Reiner Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810, Munich, 1966, p. 168, no. 868.