A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF IL CAPITANO SPAVENTO FROM THE DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 2… Read more
A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF IL CAPITANO SPAVENTO FROM THE DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES

CIRCA 1744, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK

Details
A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF IL CAPITANO SPAVENTO FROM THE DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES
CIRCA 1744, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK
Modelled by J.J. Kändler and P. Reinicke, standing before a tree-stump, his arms akimbo, in a black tricorn hat, a red-lined yellow jacket, a gilt-edged white waistcoat and breeches, white gloves and black shoes, a sword slung from his black belt, on a mound base applied with flowers and leaves (restoration to hat, left arm and hand, cuffs of gloves, handle and tip of sword, tip of left index finger lacking, right toe restored, minor restored chipping to flowers)
4½ in. (14 cm.) high
Provenance
Anonymous sale; Sotheby's, London, 2 December 2003, lot 45.
Literature
Birte Abraham, Commedia dell'Arte, The Patricia & Rodes Hart Collection of European Porcelain and Faience, Amsterdam, 2010, pp. 68-69.
Special Notice
VAT rate of 5% is payable on hammer price and at 20% on the buyer's premium.

Brought to you by

Matilda Burn
Matilda Burn

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

Sign in
View condition report

Lot Essay

In his work notes for August 1744 Reinicke describes: '1 Figur, Capitain Italien, in Thon bossirt' (1 figure, Italian Captain, modelled in clay), see Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810, Munich, 1966, p. 179, no. 962 for another similar example.
The present model is after the engraving 'Habit de Capitain Italien by François Joullain from Luigi Riccoboni's Histoire de Théâtre Italien, Paris 1728.

Il Capitano, a braggart soldier, was usually depicted as being of Spanish or Southern Italian origin. In the 18th century his role in the plays and scenarios came to be replaced by that of Scaramouche.

For a similar example in the Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collection (inv. no. 1975.1086.5) in the Historisches Museum, Basel, see Dr. Pauls-Eisenbeiss, German Porcelain of the 18th Century, London, 1972, Vol. I, pp. 328.

More from Centuries of Style

View All
View All