AN ASSEMBLED PAIR OF MEISSEN CRINOLINE FIGURES OF 'THE THROWN KISS' CIRCA 1737

This Kusshand-Gruppe was modeled from the engraving 'Le Baiser Rendu' by Pierre Filloeul after the painting by Jean-Baptiste Joseph Pater (1695-1736). Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, pl. 203, nos. 855 and 856, who illustrates a pair of figures of these models, cites on p. 166 the entry in Kändler's taxa for December 1736: 'Noch eine neue Figur aufs Waaren Lager gefertiget, in einer adriene, wie sie einen Fächer in Händen hält, und eine Mannes-Person im Schlaf-Belze sauber gebutzet kömmt, ihr in Ohr zu reden' [Modeled another figure for stock in a petticoat, holding a fan in her hands, and a man in a dressing gown, freshly groomed, whispering in her ear.]

Similar pairs are illustrated in Karl Berling, Das Meissner Porzellan und Seine Geschichte, p. 66, fig. 73; Stephan Bursche, Meissn Steinzug und Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts, Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, p. 34, nos. 302 and 303; K. Butler, Meissner Porzellanplastik des 18. Jahrhunderts, the Hermitage catalogue, nos. 8 and 9; Yvonne Hackenbroch, Meissen and Other Continental Porcelain, Faïence and Enamel in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, color pl. 20, fig. 27, which is the pair from the collection of Armand Esders, sold at the Hôtel Drouot on June 20, 1941, lot 191, pl. XVIII; and Friedrich H. Hofmann, Das Porzellan, color pl. XI. A pair of similar figures from the Jack and Belle Linsky Collection was sold at Sotheby Parke-Bernet, May 21, 1985, lot 46. 

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