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Lot 6
Rare groupe en porcelaine de Meissen répresentant Pantalon et Colombine, circa 1738
A rare Meissen group of Pantalone and Columbine, circa 1738
A rare Meissen group of Pantalone and Columbine, circa 1738
17 April 2024, 14:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €82,950 inc. premium
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Rare groupe en porcelaine de Meissen répresentant Pantalon et Colombine, circa 1738
A rare Meissen group of Pantalone and Columbine, circa 1738
A rare Meissen group of Pantalone and Columbine, circa 1738
Modelled by J.J. Kaendler, Columbine seated holding a mask in her right hand and caressing the beard of Pantalone with her left, wearing a gilt-edged white tricorn on a black bonnet with turquoise bow, a puce-lined yellow cloak, iron-red bodice with turquoise bows, yellow sash, black dress decorated with indianische Blumen and yellow shoes, Pantalone wearing a black skullcap, long iron-red-lined grey coat, gilt-edged green tunic, puce breeches with turquoise bows, a dagger from a yellow sash at his waist and yellow shoes, the base applied with leaves and flowers, 16.4cm high, traces of blue crossed swords mark on underside of base (very minor restoration)
Footnotes
Provenance:
Baroness Gabrielle Bentinck-Thyssen Collection, sold Sotheby's London, 4 June 1996, lot 94
Kaendler originally modelled a group of Pantalone and a woman - probably Columbine - around 1736 (which is not mentioned in his work records). He remodelled the group twice, creating this version in 1738 and another in 1741. This group is listed in his work records in August 1738: 'Dem Pantaleon Nebst seinem bey sich habenden Frauen Zimmer Verneuert und solches Groppgen zum abformen aufs Neue tüchtig gemacht, Weiln Vorige Forme nach öfftern gebrauch Wandelbar Worden' [Pantalone with a figure of a lady renewed and well-made as new for moulding].
A similar group is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Irwin Untermyer 1964, inv. no. 64.101.93. Meredith Chilton notes (in Harlequin Unmasked (2001), p. 304) that - unlike Pantalone - the female figure is not titled in the work records, and that her dress does not correspond to that of a servant, so she may represent an actress or a lady in a masquerade rather than Columbine.
The depiction may be based on the engraving 'Troupe of Italian Comedians' published in 1723 by Christoph Weigel (Chilton, fig. 305), though the model for the figure of Pantalone was probably the engraving by Jacques Callot of 1618-19 (Chilton, fig. 166).
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