Live Auction 1126Centuries of Style
A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF COLUMBINE FROM THE DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES
Lot 42

A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF COLUMBINE FROM THE DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES

CIRCA 1744-1747, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK AT BACK

Closed4 June 2013

Price Realised

GBP 20,625

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A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF COLUMBINE FROM THE DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES
CIRCA 1744-1747, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK AT BACK
Modelled by P. Reinicke and J.J Kändler, standing in dancing pose, her arms outstretched holding a mask and castanets, her right leg raised, in a lace-edged yellow cap, a pink waistcoat over a white dress with a band of Oriental style flowers around the hem, and yellow shoes, on a mound base applied with flowers and foliage (restoration to castanets and minute chip to right cuff, slight chipping to flowers)
5 1/8 in. (13 cm.) high

With Robert Williams, London.
The Dr. Dewhirst Collection, Sussex, purchased from Robert Williams, London.
Anonymous sale, Bonhams, London, 14 May 2008, lot 72.

Specialist note

Female roles were central to the dramatic and comic action in the Commedia dell'Arte and one of the most famous female servants of all was the flirtatious Columbine. She often acted as a go-between and was experienced in the use of disguise. As wife or lover she was depicted as promiscuous in nature, but also clever and silver-tongued.
For a similar example in The Gardiner Museum, Toronto (inv. no. G83.1.0934), see Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, p. 311, no. 109, model no. 1118. This model is one of the examples in the series that is not recorded in Reinicke's or Kändler's work notes.