Two rare Meissen porcelain figures: The Hungarian couple
Models 1281 and 1285. Both figures on earth mound bases encrusted with large flowers. The lady dressed in an ermine lined brown cape, a yellow blouse and bodice with silver borders, and a white skirt decorated with “indianische blumen” and gold rocailles. The gentleman in a fur-lined cloak, sea-green jacket, purple trousers and yellow boots, holding in his hand a yellow fur-lined hat. Unglazed base, blue crossed swords mark to the back of the plinth. Restorations to the hands, the foliage and her coat, his head reattached. H 21.5 and 22 cm.
Ca. 1750, model by Johann Joachim Kaendler and Peter Reinicke.
Provenance
Bednarczyk art dealers, Vienna.
Private collection, Palatinate.
Literature
Cf. Pietsch, Die figürliche Porzellanplastik von Gottlieb Kirchner und Johann Joachim Kaendler, Munich 2006, no. 75, another male figure from the Porzellansammlung Zwinger Dresden in (inv. no. P.E. 166). Pietsch also illustrates one of the two engravings by Charles de Ferriol (1652 - 1722) based on drawings by Jean Baptiste Vanmour (1671 – 1737) from "Recueil de cent estampes representant differentes nations du Levante, gravées sur les tableaux peints d´après nature en 1707 & 1708", which the modeller probably used as reference for these figures.
Ulrich Pietsch also mentions a further version of the Hungarian man in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
A pair from the collection of C.H. Fischer (auctioned by J.M. Heberle H. Lempertz´ Söhne Cologne, October 1906, lot 746 f.) There both figures described with the traditional or erroneous titles "Fürst und Fürstin Sulkowski".
An unpainted version of the male figure is also housed in the collection of Favorite palace (inv. no. G 2180, in Rückert, Munich 1966, no. 973).
A further version of the female figure is housed in the Landesgewerbemuseum Stuttgart (inv. no. 16/70, in Rückert, Munich 1966, no. 957).
Another pair of figures in the collection of Prof. Dr. Klaus J. Thiemann (in Antonin/Beckmann, In fürstlichen Diensten. Komödianten, Sultane und Pagoden aus Meissener Porzellan, Düsseldorf 2016, p. 46).