Footnotes

Literature
Andres-Acevedo, Sarah-Katahrina, Die autonomen figürlichen Plastiken Johann Joachim Kaendlers und seiner Werkstatt zweischen 1731 und 1748, vol. II, 2023, p. 110 (illustrated)

In June of 1741, Johann Joachim Kändler recorded in his Arbeitsberichte that he was modelling a parakeet figure for Her Excellency the Countess von Moschinska. His note reads:"Vor Ihro Excellenz die Frau Gräfin Von Moschinska einen Indianischen Vogel in ziemlicher Größe in dero Logis nach dem Leben in Thon poussiret, und solche gestalt vorgestellet wie er auf einem Kirsch Ast sietzet und ein Stücklein Zucker aus der Pfote frißt. [For Her Excellency the Countess von Moschinska, an Indian bird of suitable size, modelled from life in clay at her residence, and presented in such a way as to show it sitting on a cherry branch, eating a small lump of sugar held in its claw]."

A comparable pair is illustrated by Carl Albiker in Die Meißner Porzellantiere, 1935, plate XXVI, no. 89, which likely corresponds to the sugar-eating version described in Kändler's note. Another pair, of similar design, is included in Carl Christian Dauterman's The Wrightsman Collection, Volume IV, 1970, pp. 45 and 47, cats. 16A,B.

An example of the alternative version — possibly without the sugar or in a different pose — appears in the catalogue of the Collection of Frau Emma Budge, sold by Paul Graupe in Berlin on September 29, 1937, lot 770. This variation likely reflects the subtle changes Kändler and his assistants introduced in adapting the model for different commissions.

A similar pair of parakeets is in the Metropolitan Museum, New York (The Lesley and Emma Sheafer Collection, Bequest of Emma A. Sheafer, 1973; inv. 1974.356.340). Another pair of Indian ring-necked parakeets formerly in the Wrightsman Collection were sold at Sotheby's New York, 26 October 2012, lot 248.