A Höchst porcelain figure of Isabella's servant
from the large series of Höchst commedia dell'arte figures
Gesticulating figure of a woman in a purple bodice, a sky blue skirt and a white apron with purple flowers on a tall enamel blue plinth. Smoothed base with incised marks HN and G. Both hands, the medallion and chips to the hem of the skirt restored. H 21.2 cm.
Electoral Mainz Manufactory Höchst, around 1750 - 53, model by Johann Christoph Ludwig Lücke.
The various series of Höchst commedia dell'arte figures were outlined for the first time in a publication by Reinhard Jansen. They vary greatly in the height, design and colour of the plinths, whereby it is conceivable that the series with blue contoured plinths, or at least some of the figures from it, was produced twice. The existence of two figures of the maid on the same plinth (in the Budge collection and the Pflueger collection) speaks for this theory. Isabella's maid is based on a print published in Nuremberg in 1720 by Johann Jacob Wolrab, whereby the print is labelled "Colombine" and the figure is a mirror image version of it.
Literature
Cf. cat. Die Sammlung Frau Emma Budge Hamburg, auctioned by Paul Graupe Berlin, 27th, 28th and 29th September 1937, lot 855, there described as Ragonda, a further example with different colour variation.
Cf. Morley-Fletcher, Early European Porcelain & Faience as collected by Kiyi and Edward Pflueger, vol. I German Porcelain, London 1993, p. 124 f., for a third example with very similar painting, former collection of Otto and Magdalena Blohm.
Cf. Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell’Arte Fest der Komödianten. Keramische Kostbarkeiten aus den Museen der Welt, Stuttgart-Düsseldorf 2001, cat. no. 146 ff., for other figures with differing colour palettes and plinths.