A MEISSEN FIGURE GROUP OF A SHEPHERD AND SHEPHERDESS CIRCA 1744

Kändler's work records from 1740-1748 state: '1 Grouppgen, ein Frauenzimmer in einer Andrijan wohlgepuzt vorstellend, ingl. einen Schäffer in seinem Habit wohl angekleidet, welche einander embrassiren, worbey noch ein Schäffgen zu befinden, 12 Thlr.' [1 group, a lady well-dressed in an Andrijan, including a shepherd well-dressed in his shepherd's costume, who are embracing, with a sheep... 12 Thaler].

The group was probably based on the engraving Le Denicheur de Moineaux by François Boucher after the painting by Jean-Antoine Watteau, see Pierrette Jean-Richard, L'Œuvre grave de François Boucher, Editions des musées nationaux, 1978, p. 65, no. 158. The group was produced both with and without bocage; similar groups with a tree include the example that was in the Collections of Walter von Pannwitz, Hartekamp House, Haarlem, and Jörg Nelte, sold at Sotheby's, London, June 17, 1997, lot 113; and another from the Klemperer Collection illustrated in the collection catalogue by Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Dresden, 1928, pl. 57, cat. no. 604. Examples without a bocage include that in the Dr Ernst Schnieder Collection illustrated in Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, Munich 1966, pl. 209, no. 869; and another in Ingelore Menzhausen and Järgen Karpinski, In Porzellan verzaubert: Die Figuren Johann Joachim Kändlers in Meissen aus der Sammlung Pauls-Eisenbeiss, 

Basel, 1993, p. 149.

Sotheby’s Scientific Research department used noninvasive XRF for this lot to screen the green enamel for chromium, which was not detected.