Footnotes

Literature:
Siemen, Wilhelm (ed.), Impulse: Europäische Porzellanmanufakturen als Wegbereiter internationaler Lebenskultur, 1995, p. I-72;
Siemen, Wilhelm (ed.), Von den Ursprüngen des europäischen Porzellans bis zum Art Déco, 2010, p. 100, cat. 58

Exhibited:
Hohenberg a.d. Eger, Deutsches Porzellanmuseum Hohenberg, Impulse: Europäische Porzellanmanufakturen als Wegbereiter internationaler Lebenskultur, 1995;
Selb and Hohenberg a.d. Eger, Porzellanikon - Staatliches Museum für Porzellan, Königstraum und Massenware. 300 Jahr europäisches Porzellan, 24 April to 2 November 2010;
Hohenberg a.d. Eger, Porzellanikon - Staatliches Museum für Porzellan, 2018-2023

Simon Feilner joined the nascent Fürstenberg factory in 1753 from Höchst, accompanied by the arcanist Johann Kilian Benckgraff and the painter Johannes Zeschinger. Feilner, like his counterpart at Höchst, Johann Christoph Ludwig von Lücke, based his Comedy series on engravings published by Johann Jacob Wolrab in Nuremberg around 1720, although the Fürstenberg figures hew more closely to the print source. For a discussion of the Fürstenberg Italian Comedy series from 1753-54, which consisted of fifteen figures, see Horst Reber, "Fürstenberger Komödiantenfiguren," in Reinhard Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell'Arte, 2001, pp.116-129, and Robert Schmidt, Early European Porcelain as collected by Otto Blohm, 1953, pp. 136-138.

There is some disagreement as to the attribution of these figures, with Siegfried Ducret (Fürstenberger Porzellan, vol. II, 1965) and Beatrix Freifrau von Wolff-Metternich ("Impulse" exhibition catalogue, Deutsches Porzellanmuseum, 1995) claiming that Pantalone was one of a few figures to be modelled by Laurentius Hellner, a former colleague of Feilner's who had also left Höchst for Fürstenberg, thus contradicting Morley-Fletcher's assertion that all the figures are by the hand of Feilner.

Comparable examples can be found in Hugo Morley-Fletcher, Early European Porcelain and Faience as collected by Kiyi and Edward Pflueger, vol. I, 1993, p. 129; Reinhard Jansen, Commedia dell'arte. Fest der Komödianten., 2001, cats. 119 and 120, p. 123; and Siegfried Ducret, Fürstenberger Porzellan, vol. II, 1965, figs. 8-9, p. 16.

Another pair of figures of Pantalone and Pantaloone is in the Museum of Fine Art, Boston, inv. 1977.301, bequest of Abby Rockefeller Mauze. A similar Fürstenberg figure of Pantalone was sold at Christie's London, 22 October 2022, lot 95; Pantaloone was sold at Christie's New York, 10 May 2018, lot 736 (formerly in the collection of Peggy and David Rockefeller).

The comparable pair of Höchst figures was sold at Bonhams London, 18 June 2014, lot 157.