19TH CENTURY, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARKS, AFTER THE MODEL BY J.J. KÄNDLER

Kändler first modeled a jay for the king’s Japanese Palace in Dresden in October 1735, but it wasn’t until four years later that he modeled a companion version of it with a squirrel clinging to the tree-stump base. Records show that he modeled it out of hours between October 1739 and January 1740, and he then brought it into the factory: Eichel Gabicht ebenfalls in Lebens Grösse, wie solcher auff auf einem Stock sizet, natürlich vorgestellet, neben dem Gabicht ist ein Eichhorn in Lebens Grösse auf einem Ast sizend in Thon poussiret, nebst anderen daran befindl. Zierathen [Jay, also life-sized, perched on a tree-stump, naturally depicted. Next to the jay is a life-sized squirrel, perched on a branch modeled in clay, along with other decorative elements]⁽¹⁾. In May 1740 he modeled acorns and leaves and other decorations for it, and in 1743 Ehder carried out some slight alterations⁽²⁾.

A pair of earlier models (including the red squirrel) are illustrated by Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, Bayerischen Nationalmuseum, Munich, Exhibition Catalogue, Munich 1966, pl. 272, no. 1108 and 1109, and another pair (one with a nest) by Gerhard Röbbig, Kabinettstücke, Amira-Palais, Munich, October-November 2008 Exhibition Catalogue, Munich, 2008, pp. 146147, Kat. Nr. 28.

1. Cited by Ulrich Pietsch, Die Arbeitsberichte des Meissener Porzellanmodelleurs, Johann Joachim Kaendler, Leipzig, 2002, p. 67.
2. See Sarah-Katharina Andres-Acevedo, Die Autonomen Figürlichen Plastiken Johann Joachim Kaendlers und seiner Werkstatt, Stuttgart, 2023, vol. 2, p. 85, Kat. Nr. 189.