A large Meissen porcelain model of a pug dog and pup
Finely rendered depiction with naturalistically painted coats. Blue crossed swords mark on one sid, unglazed base. Filled firing cracks; the raised paw reattached; the ears, some of the claws and the tip of the tail restored. H 22.3 cm.
Modelled by Johann Joachim Kaendler, January 1741, produced soon after.
The numerous models of Meissen pug figures can be explained by the popularity of the "Order of the Pug", founded at the Saxon court. On the subject, it is still advisable to read Erich Köllmann's essay in Keramos 50/70, in which he refers to the only known publication on the order founded by the Cologne Elector Clemens August and its cause: The book "L'ordre des Francs-Macons trahi et le Secret des Mopses relevé" by Abbé Gabriel Louis Calabre Perau (1700 - 1767), published in Amsterdam in 1745. In the same year, the book was translated and published as "Der verrathene Orden der Freymäurer, Und das offenbarte Geheimniß der Mopsgesellschaft" in Leipzig by Arkstée and Merkus.
It describes in particular detail the Order's solemn but jocular initiation rite, which was intended to satirise that of the Freemasons. On the whole, the book is probably more intended as a stimulus for a critical social game, which was prompted by the banishment and excommunication of the French Freemasons by Pope Clement XII in 1738. Women were also admitted to the new order, one of whom held the position of lodge master alongside her male counterpart, the "Grand Pug".
The status of the pug as a courtly animal was established - and lives on to this day for collectors of porcelain sculptures and keepers of this breed as pets: "A life without a pug is possible, but pointless" (Vicco von Bülow).
Literature
Cf. Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710 - 1810, Munich 1966, no. 1094.
Cf. Pietsch, Die figürliche Meißener Porzellanplastik von Gottlieb Kirchner und Johann Joachim Kaendler, Munich 2006, Cat. no. 299 (SKD inv. no. P.E.577).
Cf. Dumortier/Habets (ed.), The T&T Collection. Porcelain Pugs. A Passion, Brussels 2019, no. 6 ff.