A Meissen porcelain clock case with a figure of Diana
Designed as a large rocaille cartouche with sculpted reeds at the sides and large scroll supports. The scroll finial crowned by a figure of the goddess Diana with a bow and arrows dressed in a sea green drapery. The round aperture for the clock dial and the outer faces painted with scenes of elegant couples in buildings in park landscapes. The shell relief and the upper faces painted to resemble marble. Blue crossed swords mark, an old label on the reverse reads "Altmeissen Uhr (früher Satori) (Ao) Schafranek". The figure and leaves restored. H 40.2, W 21, D 13 cm.
1741 - 45, model attributed to Johann Gottlieb Ehder and Johann Joachim Kaendler.
The Meissen manufactory produced large quantities of cases for clocks and pocketwatches. The designs utilised were highly varied, both in terms of size and decor. This example displays a broad range of costly techniques, such as coloured grounds, miniature painting, sumptuous gilding and a figural model that was almost certainly designed by Kaendler. Johann Joachim Kaendler sculpted several similar figures of seated female goddesses from 1740 until the end of his working life at the manufactory. They often formed the finials of vases or large tureens. One entry from his workshop records explicity refers to clock cases: "Zwey Formen zu denen Uhr gehäußen Worauf Fügüren befindl. Geändert und den Raum zu den Ziffer Blättern um ein Merckliches Vergrößert, auch die daran befindlichen Ornamente aufs Neue ausgebeßert und aufs beße Wieder brauchbar gemacht." (Pietsch, Leipzig 2002, p. 90).
The goddess Diana is an unusual subject for a clock case, and could indicate that the recipient or patron the piece was a passionate hunter. This would apply to numerous regents of this era, for example Prince Elector Clemens August of Cologne, for whom Kaendler and Ehder designed the famous hunting goblet in 1741 currently housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (Inv. no. 1974.356.337ab).
Provenance
Collection of Renate and Tono Dreßen, acquired at Christie's London, 29th June 1987, lot 258.
Literature
Illus. in cat.: Blütenlese. Meißener Porzellan aus der Sammlung Tono Dreßen, Munich 2018, p. 105, no. 70.
An almost identical clock case in the Dresden Porcelain Collection (Inv. no. PE 99).