A Meissen porcelain large figure of a pastry seller from the 'Cris de Paris' series, circa 1755

The Meissen ‘Cris de Paris’ series represents a realistic depiction of the people, costumes, gestures and expressions of eighteenth-century Paris. The ‘criers’ include street vendors, tradesmen, performers and musicians, as well as dandies and courtesans. A first series was probably modelled by P. Reinicke, between 1744 and 1747, and consisted of seven male figures. The models for a second more extensive series, consisting of thirty-four figures, were derived from watercolour drawings commissioned by the French art dealer Jean-Charles Huet (d. 1755), who was for a short time the factory’s sole agent in Paris. Three sets of these watercolours, now surviving only in part, are preserved in the Meissen archives. One group bears the date 1753, indicating that the drawings may have reached the manufactory in that year and subsequently served as the basis for the production of the series.