Live Auction 1126Centuries of Style
A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF A DANCING HARLEQUINE FROM THE DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES
Lot 47

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

CIRCA 1745, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK AT BACK

Closed4 June 2013

Price Realised

GBP 6,250

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A MEISSEN COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE FIGURE OF A DANCING HARLEQUINE FROM THE DUKE OF WEISSENFELS SERIES
CIRCA 1745, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK AT BACK
Modelled by P. Reinicke and probably J.J. Kändler, in dancing pose with her right hand extended and her right leg raised, holding a slapstick in her left hand, in a gilt-edged yellow hat, a white and black bodice, a white skirt with purple and green scattered flower-sprays, a low slung black belt and yellow shoes with blue rosettes, on a mound base applied with foliage (restoration to right hand, hat brim and hem of skirt)
5 3/8 in. (13.7 cm.) high

With the Woollahra Trading Company, London, from whom it was acquired on 17 June 1998.

Specialist note

Reinicke recorded that he repaired a tanzende Arlequinin (dancing Harlequine) in October 1744. For a similar example in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto (inv. no. G83.1.0932) see Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, p. 310, no. 104, where she also notes that this model was copied at Höchst, Berlin and Derby, see cat. nos. 53 and no. 42 and no. 33.

Harlequine, the female counterpart to Harlequin, began to appear in engraved and painted depictions of the Commedia dell'Arte in the late 17th century. She is rarely found in surviving plays so it seems most likely that she became popular as a masquerade character to be paired with Harelquin for dancing and court festivities.