A PAIR OF MEISSEN PORCELAIN MODELS OF RED SQUIRRELS

Both models are illustrated and discussed by Melitta Kunze-Köllensperger, Sammlung Ritter Kempski von Rakoszyn: Meissener Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts, 2008, pp. 76-78, no. 50 (squirrel with nut in its forepaws) and no. 51 (squirrel with nut in its mouth), where the author mentions that based on the evidence of the factory mould numbers 1275 and 1276, these squirrels were probably modelled in about 1749. According to Kändler's Taxa, he first modeled a pair of squirrels in August 1732: 'Zwei Eichhörnigen' (two squirrels) and afterwards in September 1733, 'Ein kleines Eichhörngen' (a small squirrel). An example of each model was sold in the Collection of Sir Gawaine & Lady Baillie, Sotheby's London, 1 May 2013, lots 76 and 77.