A rare Meissen porcelain beaker with an allegory of the month December
So-called "Wermuthkrügel" form beaker decorated on the display side with a winter scene showing two peasant men chopping wood within an opulent gilt cartouche flanked on either side by finely painted male figures, allegories of the winter, after Jacques Callot. Faint blue crossed swords mark on the unglazed base. A vertical crack with a small rim chip to the right side. H 8 cm.
Circa 1745.
The designs for the caricature figures are inspired by "Il Callotto Resuscitato oder, Neu eingerichtete Zwerchen Cabinet", published 1716 in Amsterdam by Wilhelm Engelbert Koning.
Provenance
Collection of Renate and Tono Dreßen, acquired from Enrico Caviglia, 2004.
Literature
Illus. in cat. Blütenlese. Meißener Porzellan aus der Sammlung Tono Dreßen, Munich 2018, p. 117.
All twelve calendar beakers from the collection of Dr. Fritz Mannheimer in the possession of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam (in: bei den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 2000, no. 231).
Generally speaking, only two beakers with the month of December are known to exist, one in the Nyffeler collection in Zurich (Christie's, London, 9th June 1986, lot 169) and another sold by Christie's London on 2nd October 1989 (possibly the present work).