A very rare Ludwigsburg miniature figure of a knife sharpener from the Venetian Carnival circa 1762-70

operating the wheel with a pedal and holding a knife for sharpening in his hands, a bucket and a black pouch hung on the other side of the wheel, the mustachioed figure wearing a black tricorn, iron-red-lined green jacket, blue waistcoat, brown apron and yellow breeches

This figure is not recorded by Hans Dieter Flach, Ludwigsburger Porzellan (1997), nor does it appear to be recorded in the remaining literature. The largest group of figures from the Jahrmarkt, or Venetian Carnival, originally the property of the Prince Bishop of Speyer, when it comprised 337 figures, was sold from the collections of the Margraves and Grand Dukes of Baden, Sotheby's Baden-Baden, 6th October 1995, lot 823.