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Lot Essay
This figure forms part of a group of white figures of street-vendors made at Mennecy to represent everyday life. This, and other models in the series were probably derived in part from the Meissen Cris de Paris series originals by J.J. Kändler and P. Reinicke after designs by Christophe Hüet. For an example of the Meissen model, from which this figures draws inspiration, see Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, Munich, 1966, p. 230, no. 949. A Mennecy vegetable-seller1 and a fruit-seller2 with remarkably similar overall pose, and almost identical modelling of the face, clearly belong to the same group as the present lot and are probably by the same modeller; both are illustrated in the article by Aileen Dawson, 'The Development of Repertoire in Mennecy Porcelain Sculpture, circa 1738-65', Metropolitan Museum of Art Journal, Vol. 37, 2002, where other comparable figures from the series are mentioned.
1. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, gift of R. Thornton Wilson, 1954 (54.147.7).
2. In the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles (86.DE.473).