CIRCA 1737

Details

A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF PANTALONE
CIRCA 1737
Modelled by J.J. Kändler, in typical pose walking forward and with a beard, wearing a black skull cap, a long white cloak over his iron-red buttoned suit with yellow rosettes at the knees and iron-red slippers, a dagger slung from his waist, on a mound base applied with foliage (slight chipping to foliage, very slight scratches to breeches and minute flake to hat)
6 in. (15.2 cm.) high

Provenance

'The Property of a Lady'; sale Sotheby's, London, 12 March 1968, lot 163.
'The Property of a Lady of Title'; sale Sotheby's, London, 7 November 1972, lot 42.
'Private Collection'; sale Sotheby's, Geneva, 14 November 1989, lot 23.
'A Private European Collection'; sale Sotheby's, London, 17 June 1997, lot 125.

Literature

Birte Abraham, Commedia dell'Arte, The Patricia & Rodes Hart Collection of European Porcelain and Faience, Amsterdam, 2010, pp. 20-21.

Special notice

VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

Brought to you by

Dominic Simpson

dsimpson@christies.com +44 (0)20 7752 3026

Lot Essay

This figure was inspired by the engraving Habit de Pantalon Ancien by François Joullain, after Jacques Callot, which illustrated Luigi Riccoboni's Histoire du Théatre Italien published in Paris in 1728 (see page 8). It appears that Kändler reworked this figure from an original version in 1736 which is often described as Pantalone and Columbine, as it included Pantalone with an actress.1 See Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, p. 293, fig. 70 for a similar example in The George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto.

1. See Abraham den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2000, pp. 432-434, no. 316.

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