TWO MEISSEN MODELS OF A JAY AND A SQUIRREL

J.J. Kändler first modelled a pair of jays for Augustus the Strong's Japanese Palace in 1735. The model with a squirrel to one side is recorded in Kändler's Taxa for 1 October 1739 to 31 January 1740: 1. Eichel Gabicht in Lebens Größe, wie solcher auff einem Stock sizet,, natürlich vorgestellet, neben dem ist Gabicht ein Eichhorn in Lebengröße auf einem Ast sizend in Thon poußiert, nebst anderen befindl. Zeirathen. Subsequent entries referring to the jays occur in the work records for Kändler in May 1740 and September 1741 and entries for J.G. Ehder in 1743 and 1744 suggest that he may also have worked on elements of the models. See Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, Munich, 1966, pl. 272, no. 1109, for an example of the model with the squirrel to one side in the Bayerisches Nationalmuseum, Munich, and no. 1108 for its companion jay. An ormolu-mounted example of the former is in the Metropolitian Museum of Art, New York (no. 1974.356.344) and similar examples including the model with the jumping squirrel are on view in the Dresden Porcelain Collection in the Zwinger palace. The model with the squirrel emerging from the tree-stump, a variant on the aforementioned companion model (without squirrel), also appears to have been created in 1739/40. See the pair of jays from the collection of Sir Gawaine and Lady Baillie, sold Sotheby's, London, 1 May 2013, lot 21 and the pair from the collection of Mrs. Charles W. Engelhard, sold Christie's, New York, 18 March 2005, lot 38.