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Lot Essay
The Meissen monkey band, or 'Affenkapelle', was one of the later achievements of J.J. Kändler and one that has the most captured the public imagination. The workbooks for the period in which the figures of monkey-musicians were conceived and first produced are missing. However, from external evidence it is known that they were available for sale by 1753. In December of that year, Lazare Duvaux, the Paris marchand-mercier, supplied 'Mme la Marquise de Pompadour... Dix neuf figures de Saxe formant un concert de singes, avec les instruments & attributs, a 23l., 437 un pupitre même porcelaine, 6l'.
It is clear from the factory records of the early 1760's that the series continued to be worked on and 'corrigiert' by Peter Reinicke.
Tradition has always suggested that they were devised as a caricature of Count Brühl's orchestra. As Robert Charleston states in his seminal entry in the Waddesdon Manor Catalogue (Meissen and Oriental Porcelain [Fribourg, 1971], no.63), the actual inspiration would appear to have come from France where 'singeries' were aleady popular. In several instances, as is the case at Waddesdon, Meissen Affenkapelle were mounted in ormolu on musical clocks. This was by no means the first instance of Paris dictating to Meissen what it thought the factory should create. As Duvaux and Mme. de Pompadour were involved in the earliest recorded acquisition of these figures, it is tempting to wonder whether the idea came from one of them.
There would seem to be no precise number of members of the monkey orchestra. Charleston, ibid. (Fribourg, 1971), p. 194, lists the composition of eleven such series. None of them are made up of the same number of musicians. The Waddesdon set lacks, for instance a Cunductor, Violinist, Flautist and Hurdy-Gurdy player. There were four different models of songstress. Very few series of these figures survive outside permanent collections.
It is clear from the factory records of the early 1760's that the series continued to be worked on and 'corrigiert' by Peter Reinicke.
Tradition has always suggested that they were devised as a caricature of Count Brühl's orchestra. As Robert Charleston states in his seminal entry in the Waddesdon Manor Catalogue (Meissen and Oriental Porcelain [Fribourg, 1971], no.63), the actual inspiration would appear to have come from France where 'singeries' were aleady popular. In several instances, as is the case at Waddesdon, Meissen Affenkapelle were mounted in ormolu on musical clocks. This was by no means the first instance of Paris dictating to Meissen what it thought the factory should create. As Duvaux and Mme. de Pompadour were involved in the earliest recorded acquisition of these figures, it is tempting to wonder whether the idea came from one of them.
There would seem to be no precise number of members of the monkey orchestra. Charleston, ibid. (Fribourg, 1971), p. 194, lists the composition of eleven such series. None of them are made up of the same number of musicians. The Waddesdon set lacks, for instance a Cunductor, Violinist, Flautist and Hurdy-Gurdy player. There were four different models of songstress. Very few series of these figures survive outside permanent collections.
