A HÖCHST TABLE-CENTREPIECE EMBLEMATIC OF THE SEASONS

A table-centrepiece with a stand of the same form, rising to an open basket, together with the four figures of the Seasons corresponding to those in the present lot are in the Höchster Porzellan-Museum (Historisches Museum, Frankfurt), inv. no. X22 227 a-e and another of the same type is illustrated by Karl Heinz Esser and Helga Schmidt-Glassner, Höchster Porzellan, Königstein im Taunus, 1962, p. 11. Examples of Spring and Autumn are illustrated by Horst Reber et al., Höchster Porzellan aus drei Jahrhunderten, Hohenberg an der Eger, 1988, p. 27 (Spring) and p. 28 (Autumn), where the author mentions that the figures are after Meissen models by J.J. Kändler. Examples of Autumn and Winter are illustrated by Kurt Röder and Michel Oppenheim, Das Höchster Porzellan, Mainz, 1930, pl. 15 c and d. For the Meissen model of Autumn see Hans Syz et. al., Catalogue of the Hans Syz Collection, Washington, D.C., 1979, Vol. I, p. 455, no. 301.

Andreas Philipp Oettner was a prolific independent painter with a distinctive style of painting marked by figures with double-lidded eyes and high eyebrows. According to contemporary records he worked at many of the important German porcelain factories. He is documented at Vienna in 1756 and subsequently at Nymphenburg in 1756-57. In 1759 he was working at Frankenthal and then at Ludwigsburg where he stayed until 1763 when he moved to Höchst, leaving there in 1766. An elaborately pierced Höchst pot-pourri vase and cover with similar seated putti, the modelling attributed to Laurentius Russinger and with scenes probably painted by Oettner, is in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, museum no. C.76-1946, as well as an example of the figure of Autumn, museum no. C.409-1926.