Allegory of Agriculture
Cast from bronze with high copper content and gilt. Depicting a girl seated on a bull holding a large bunch of grapes and with a bundle of grapes and fruit before her. Engraved to the upper left of the plinth "J. TASCHNER", stamped to the side of the plinth "PRIESSMANN BAUER & CO MUNICH BAVARIA". H 42.7 cm.
Ignatius Taschner, designed in 1905, cast by Kunstgießerei Prießmann Bauer & Co., Munich, circa/after 1909.
This important allegorical figure by Ignatius Taschner was originally cast in silver by Prießmann, Bauer & Co. in Munich as part of a silver service presented to Crown Prince Wilhelm and Duchess Cecile zu Mecklenburg as a wedding gift by the Prussian Städtetag (association of towns and cities) on 6th June 1905. This crown prince service comprises of 50 place settings, tureens, platters, dishes, several large centrepieces, as well as candlesticks and figural table decorations, numbering 2,694 pieces in total. Numerous artists collaborated with Taschner on the completion of the service, including August Gaul and Fritz Klimsch.
The order was finally completed in 1914, but the outbreak of the First World War prevented its delivery. The crown prince sold it to the magistrate of Berlin in 1929. As of 1932 it was displayed to museum visitors on a richly laden table in the upper floor of Berlin Palace. Today, the service on loan from the state of Berlin to Charlottenburg Palace.
It is thought that Prießmann, Bauer & Co. produced this bronze model before Ignatius Taschner's death in 1913. Unlike the example in the crown prince's service, this group stands on a shallow, flat plinth and not on a broad base with ornamental relief.
Literature
The silver version in cat.: Ignatius Taschner. Ein Künstlerleben zwischen Jugendstil und Neoklassizismus, Munich 1992, illus. 329, p. 286 f.
Cf. cat.: Kronschatz und Silberkammer, Berlin-München 2010, illus. 24 f., for further figures from the crown prince's silver collection.