A SEVRES BISCUIT FIGURE GROUP OF 'LA MARCHANDE DE MACARONS'

Conceived by Etienne-Maurice Falconet in 1759 as a pendant to his group of two years earlier, Le Gourmand or Les Buveurs de Lait, the present model may be that also known in the factory's records as Les Friands. However, the latter title may be that of a similar group depicting an urchin gobbling the cream stolen from a young merchant, the poses of the two figures virtually the same as that of the present group. Cf. Marie-Noëlle Pinot de Villechenon and Véronique Milande, Falconet à Sèvres 1757-1766 ou l'art de plaire Exhibition Catalogue, Musée nationale de Céramique, Sèvres, 6 November 2001 - 4 February 2002, pp. 234-124, cat. nos. 50-52.