True Connoisseurship: The Collection of Ezra & Cecile Zilkha
True Connoisseurship: The Collection of Ezra & Cecile Zilkha
TWO MEISSEN FIGURES OF ROLLERS, CIRCA 1745
Auction Closed
November 20, 10:09 PM GMT
Estimate
25,000 - 35,000 USD
Lot Details
Description
TWO MEISSEN FIGURES OF ROLLERS
CIRCA 1745
modelled by Johann Joachim Kändler and Johann Gottlieb Ehder, each with blue and black plumage, perched on high leafy stumps, one applied with a smaller bird and the other with a large beetle, one with impressed numeral 26
height 15 in. and 13 in.
38.2 cm and 33 cm
Christie's London, 24 February, 1997, lot 286
Rollers, Mandel Kraen, Mandel Grahnen, are first mentioned in Kändler's work records of August 1735: "Eine Mandel Krahe angefangen welche ins Königl. Balläis gehörigan welcher aber noch etwas zu fertigen übrig verbieben", [“Started a roller for the Royal Palace order, but it still has some work to be done on it]; and again in September 1735: "...die Mandel Krahe follend fertig gemacht wie sie auf einem vielen Laub bewachßenen Stocke sitzet darauf verschiedene Käfer and Raupe befindlich Davon sie welche frißet, Johann Joachim Kändler", ["...the roller which still has to be finished, sitting on a tree-stump over-grown with much foliage on which a variety of beetles and caterpillars are to be seen, some being eaten by the roller, Johann Joachim Kändler"] (Samuel Wittwer, The Gallery of Meissen Animals, Augustus the Strong's Menagerie for the Japanese Palace in Dresden, Munich 2006, p. 351).
The model was produced in two sizes, approximately 37.5 cm and 33 cm high. Six were delivered to the Japanese Palace before March 1736, though by 1770 the inventory records that only three examples remained in collection. The modeller J. G. Ehder assisted Kändler on these figures, and records in October 1739: 'In Thon poussiert: 1 Mandel Grahen Kopf' [modelled in clay: 1 roller head].
A pair of the smaller size with later gilt-bronze mounts from the Collections of Lily & Edmond J. Safra was sold at Sotheby's New York, 18-21 October, 2011, lot 1142 ($314,500), formerly sold at Sotheby's London, 9 July, 1957, lot 81 and again in the Garbisch Collection at Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, 17 May, 1980, lot 197. A further pair of the smaller size from the Estate of Laurance S. Rockefeller was sold at Sotheby's New York, 11-12 October, 2005, lot 191, formerly in the Collection of Nelson A. Rockefeller, sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, 11 April, 1980, lot 182.
Sotheby's Scientific Research department used noninvasive XRF for this lot to screen the green enamel for chromium, which was not detected.
The model was produced in two sizes, approximately 37.5 cm and 33 cm high. Six were delivered to the Japanese Palace before March 1736, though by 1770 the inventory records that only three examples remained in collection. The modeller J. G. Ehder assisted Kändler on these figures, and records in October 1739: 'In Thon poussiert: 1 Mandel Grahen Kopf' [modelled in clay: 1 roller head].
A pair of the smaller size with later gilt-bronze mounts from the Collections of Lily & Edmond J. Safra was sold at Sotheby's New York, 18-21 October, 2011, lot 1142 ($314,500), formerly sold at Sotheby's London, 9 July, 1957, lot 81 and again in the Garbisch Collection at Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, 17 May, 1980, lot 197. A further pair of the smaller size from the Estate of Laurance S. Rockefeller was sold at Sotheby's New York, 11-12 October, 2005, lot 191, formerly in the Collection of Nelson A. Rockefeller, sold at Sotheby Parke Bernet, Inc., New York, 11 April, 1980, lot 182.
Sotheby's Scientific Research department used noninvasive XRF for this lot to screen the green enamel for chromium, which was not detected.