CIRCA 1723

R.G. Vater Collection no. 202 (paper collection label attached to interior of cover).

The standing figure holding a pipe and a teacup is adapted from sheet 23 of Höroldt’s sketchbook, the Schulz Codex, and two further figures are adapted from figures on sheet 19 (the figure with an object hanging from her wrist and the lady with her left hand held out). The figure of the black lady holding a mace is taken from a playing card, from the card game 'Jeu de la Géographie' published in 1644, which is embellished with an engraved depiction of a lady from Egypte by Stefano della Bella (see Claudia Bodinek, Raffinesse im Akkord: Meissener porzellanmalerei und ihre grafischen vorlagen, Dresden, 2018, Vol. II, p. 59, no. 42).

A teacaddy of similar type with chinoiserie and exotic figures, also probably painted by Höroldt, is illustrated by Maria L. Santangelo, A Princely Pursuit, The Malcolm D. Gutter Collection of Early Meissen Porcelain, Trento, 2018, pp. 112-113, no. 30, where an engraved illustration of Honan (Cathay or China) from Carel Allard’s Orbis habitabilis oppida et vestitus (The Towns and Costumes of the Inhabited World, published circa 1695) is illustrated as it appears to be the source for one of the figures on the teacaddy. A teacaddy of the same form painted by Höroldt with ‘half-figures’ was sold by Christie’s, London, on 11 December 2007, lot 16.