Naturalistically coloured, and modelled, Kaendler has brilliantly caught the alert posture of grazing hares with ears raised and poised to run.
Ten hares (haasen) and four lying hares are listed in the inventory of 1st October 1753 of the collection in the Conditorey, or pantry, of Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700–63), Prime Minister of Saxony and Administrator of the Meissen Manufactory from 1733 to 1763.[i] Michelle Beiny notes that they probably were used at his hunting lodge for table decoration.
Other examples include:
The Peggy and David Rockefeller collection sold at Christie’s, New York, 9 May 2018
Two upright hares (the same, not a pair) acquired by Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild in the collection of Waddesdon Manor.[ii]
Alexander Guttmann Collection, Christie’s London, 5 July 2004, lot 142
Sotheby’s London, 1 May 2013, lot 29, also published by Melitta Kunze-Köllensperger[iii]
Condition:
Buck: right ear restuck, part of left ear restored
Doe: tip of right ear restored
References:
Charleston and Ayers 1971
R.J. Charleston and John Ayers, The James A. De Rothschild Collection At Waddesdon Manor, Meissen And Oriental Porcelain, (Office du Livre, 1971)
Kunze-Köllensperger 1999
Melitta Kunze-Köllensperger, Alexander’s Tiere, Sammlung Axel Guttmann, (1999), no. 6.
Pietsch 2000
Ulrich Pietsch et. al., Schwanenservice, Meissener Porzellan für Heinrich Graf von Brühl, (Edition Leipzig 2000)
[i] Pietsch 2000, p. 234, Cap 19.
[ii] Charleston and Ayers 1971, cat. No. 60.
[iii] Kunze-Köllensperger 1999, No. 6.
Price: £48,000
