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A Meissen figure of the Court Jester Joseph Fröhlich circa 1752 image 1

Lot 67

A Meissen figure of the Court Jester Joseph Fröhlich
circa 1752

The Hoffmeister Collection of Meissen Porcelain Part 1

25 November 2009, 10:30 GMT

London, New Bond Street

£30,000 - £40,000

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A Meissen figure of the Court Jester Joseph Fröhlich

circa 1752
Modelled by Johann Joachim Kaendler, wearing a yellow pointed hat with a puce ribbon, puce-lined green jacket with gilt trim, lavender trousers with black braces inscribed 'J.F' and dated 1752, and black boots, on a canted, gilt-edged pedestal, 24.5cm high, crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue to base of pedestal (minor flaking to green enamel on both elbows, tiny chip to rear edge of his left boot)

Footnotes

Provenance:
The Property of E.A. Treherne, Esq., sold Sotheby's London, 25 March 1958, lot 167;
Anon. sale, Sotheby's Geneva, 10 May 1988, lot 40
Acquired in the above sale

Literature:
Rückert 1998, p. 266, n. 32;
Hoffmeister 1999, II, no. 278

Exhibited:
Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe, 1999-2009

The Saxon Court Jester Joseph Fröhlich (1694-1757) was first modelled by Johann Joachim Kaendler or J.G. Kirchner around 1733 after an engraving by C.F. Boetius of 1729. The first mention of the figure is in a delivery from the porcelain store in Dresden on 7th March 1733: 'Für den Königl. Printzen von Pohlen und Littauen und Cour-Fürstl. Durchl. zu Sachsen [...] 1. Josephs Figur' (for the Royal Prince of Poland and Electoral Serene Highness of Saxony ... 1 figure of Joseph). Kaendler reworked the figure in 1736, and revised it again in 1737 and 1738. The inscribed dates on his braces range between 1733 and 1758. Fröhlich, whose full title was Ober-Mühlen-commisarius, Kurzweiligen Rat, Königlich-Polnischen Mühlen-Kommisarius, was depicted not only in several Meissen figures and groups, but also a variety of other materials, including faience. See Rückert 1998 for the definitive study of Fröhlich's life, esp. pp. 25-39.

A second example of this figure dated 1752 (with blue jacket, yellow trousers and green hat) was in the List Collection, Magdeburg, sold Hans W. Lange, Berlin, 28-30 March 1939, lot 826.

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