Vanessa Sigalas has recently shown that these groups, each of a mother with two children, were modelled largely by Friedrich Elias Meyer perhaps with some remodelling by Peter Reinicke and with the head of the sculpture workshop, Johann Joachim Kaendler, only exercising a supervisory role.[1] Sigalas has noted the similarity of the modelling to two of Meyer’s surviving terracotta models in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg.[2]
Friedrich Elias Meyer, Terracotta, Germanisches Nationalmuseum (Pl.O.3350)
These multi figure groups are adapted sometimes directly and sometimes loosely from prints after François Boucher (1703-1770). The sources used include the series of Les délices de l’enfance engraved by Jean-Joseph Balechou and Antoine Aveline and the Scènes de la vie chinoise engraved by Gabriel Huquier (1695-1772) and Pierre Aveline (1679-1722). Boucher in turn sometimes quoted from earlier print sources or Chinese woodblock prints such as the 1696 edition of the Yuzhi gengzhi tu, a treatise on the cultivation of grain and silk commissioned by the Kangxi Emperor.[3]
In some cases the prints are copied closely such as the group of the standing lady beside a kettle, in other instances they are adapted much more loosely.
Unlike the slightly earlier standing single figures by Reinicke these groups, with rare exceptions, do not appear in the Saxon royal pantry, hofconditorei, inventories. So whilst the single figures were intended for table decoration these groups deriving from engravings after Boucher were mostly intended for the French market.[4]
References:
Sigalas 2023
Vanessa Sigalas and Meredith Chilton (Ed.), All Walks of Life: A Journey with The Alan Shimmerman Collection: Meissen Porcelain Figures of the Eighteenth Century, (Arnoldsche 2023)
Stein 2011
Perrin Stein: The French Porcelain Society Journal: Volume IV, ‘Repackaging China for France: The Collaboration of Francois Boucher and Gabriel Huquier’, 2011
Lady with Cymbal and Two Children
Condition: Tops of batons of seated child restored, and lower end of baton of standing child restored
Provenance: The Rosa Alba Collection
Price : £12,500
Lady with a Kettle and Two Children
Condition:
Neatly broken through her waist, her right hand and handle of kettle replaced. Spout of kettle restuck. Chips to edge of bottom tray and lady’s finger on left hand restored.
Price: £11,500
Lady with Two Children holding Parasols
Condition:
One parasol and fingers of standing child restored.
Provenance: The Rosa Alba Collection
Price: £11,500
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[1] Sigalas 2023, pp. 478 & 479.
[2] Sigalas p. 475, fig 39 & p. 478, fig 42 no.s Pl.O.3350 & Pl.O.3351.
[3] Stein 2011, pp. 50-67.
[4] Sigalas 2023, pp. 478 & 479.
