A set of four Meissen Large Figures of 'The Seasons' Mounted in Ormolu and Tôle Peinte as Five-Light Candelabra the figures modelled probably by Johann Friedrich Eberlein circa 1745

'Spring' as a maiden wearing a puce-lined turquoise drapery and a décolleté white robe patterned with gilt sprigs, with two daffodils in her left hand, her right hand resting on an oval basket of colorful flowers borne on the head of a putto walking beside her; 'Summer' as a maiden with tan wheat ears in her hair and a yellow-lined white drapery patterned with colorful indianische Blumen and gilt foliate sprigs, with wheatears and an oxidized silver sickle in her right hand, her left hand above a sheaf of wheat borne by a putto at her side; 'Autumn' as Bacchus with wreaths of blue and turquoise grapes and green leaves around his head and hips, holding further bunches of grapes and leaning against a vine-entwined tree stump beside a young satyr seated on a white and tan keg and drinking from a goblet; 'Winter' as a bearded man loosely cloaked in a fur-lined blue mantle incised with foliate sprigs and standing between a flaming brazier and a putto splitting logs; fitted at the back with a tôle peinte five-branch tree fitted with an assortment of predominantly soft-paste porcelain blossoms, and ending in leaf-cast drip pans and candle nozzles; raised on a later ormolu scrollwork base bearing the Crowned C mark.

Collection of Mr. and Mrs. Howard B. Keck, 'La Lanterne', Bel Air, California, sold, Sotheby's, New York, December 5, 1991, lot 3

A pair of figures of 'Spring' and 'Winter' from this series is illustrated by Ludwig Schnorr von Carolsfeld, Porzellan der europäischen Fabriken, p. 142, pl. 83, who suggests that it was modelled by Eberlein around 1745 after baroque sculptural prototypes by Balthasar Permoser (1651-1732), specifically the architectural stone carvings made for the Zwinger in Dresden, built between 1711 and 1722.

Similar sets of  "The Four Seasons" are illustrated by Ursula Erichsen-Firle, Figürliches Porzellan, the catalogue of the Kunstgewerbemuseum der Stadt Köln, Vol. V, pp. 124 and 125 (a-d); and by David Rosenfeld, Porcelain Figures of the Eighteenth Century in Europe, p. 34.  Another set is illustrated by F. Brayshaw Gilhespy, Derby Porcelain, pl. 19, along with the slightly later Derby versions of the models closely inspired by the Meissen prototypes.  A set almost identically decorated to the present examples, and mounted on ormolu square bases, was sold, Sotheby's, London, March 6, 1990, lot 183.

Other examples of these figures are illustrated by K. Butler, Meissner Porzellanplastik des 18. Jahrhunderts, the Hermitage catalogue, nos. 81-83: 'Spring', 'Summer' and 'Autumn'; in the Catalogue of the C.H. Fischer Collection, sold J.M. Heberle, Cologne, October 25, 1906, pl. XXXV, lots 909-911: 'Autumn', 'Winter' and 'Spring'; in Deutsch Tanagra, the catalogue of the Georg Hirth Collection, no. 317: 'Winter' (identified as Nymphenburg); and in the Catalogue of the Friedrich Girtanner Collection, sold, Rudolph Lepke, Berlin, December 9, 1926, pl. 13, lot 33: 'Winter', and pl. 31, lots 152 and 154: 'Spring' and 'Autumn', respectively.  The latter figure of 'Spring' subsequently was in the collection of Herr and Frau Dr. Marcel Nyffeler, sold, Christie's, London, June 9, 1986, lot 68.