MEISSEN - Lot 51

Lot 51
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Estimation :
8000 - 12000 EUR
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Result : 13 000EUR
MEISSEN - Lot 51
MEISSEN Figure of Fröhlich standing on a rectangular base with cut sides, wearing blue pants, yellow jacket and black hat. Unmarked. 18th century, around 1740. Height : 24 cm. 24 cm high. Three small chips on the edge of the base, a chip on the reverse of the vest, a chip on the edge of the hat. This statuette represents the Saxon court jester Joseph Fröhlich (1694-1757), a native of Tyrol, who was from 1727 to his death the from 1727 to his death the entertainment advisor and illusionist of the Electoral and Royal Court (Kurtzweiliger und Kurürstlicher und Königlicher Hoftaschenspieler). A first portrait of Joseph Fröhlich was made in Meissen by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner around 1730. An engraving of Fröhlich was published in 1729 in Dresden by Christian Friedrich Boetius. In 1900, Karl Berling published a watercolor of a statuette of Fröhlich, which was then kept in the Tower room in Dresden and dated to the year 1730. the Tower in Dresden and dated 1733 (Karl Berling, Meissner Porzellan, 1900, pl. III, no. 4, p. 13). This statuette, disappeared since 1945, is directly inspired by the engraving of Boetius. This statuette has been compared with with a mention in the archives of the Meissen factory that in 1733 a figure of Joseph was delivered to the Royal Prince of Poland and Serene Highness Elector of Saxony ("Für den Königl. Printzen von Pohlen und Littauen und Cour-Fürstl. Durchl. zu Sachsen [...] 1. Josephs Figur"). The archives of the Meissen manufactory records mention that in 1736 Johann Joachim Kaendler took over the figure of Joseph Fröhlich and provided a new, reworked version. He modified the figure again in 1737 and 1738. The majority of the examples known to date are dated on the straps between 1736 and 1758 (for a complete study of the a complete survey of the known examples, classified by year, see Angela Gräfin von Wallwitz, "Früh Oder Spät?. Zur datierung von Meissener Porzellanfiguren" in Keramos, no. 194/2006, pp. 29-68 and also Rainer Rückert, Der HofnarrJoseph Fröhlich, 1998).
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