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

This figure is from the celebrated group commissioned as table decorations by Adolph II, Duke of Weissenfels, which Meissen then continued to produce. The series was a collaboration between Kaendler, Eberlein and Reinicke and it appears to have consisted of twenty figures, of which ten were based on engravings by Joullain. The records show that the figure of Scapin was modelled by Reinicke. For a set of the figures, see Dr. Erika Pauls-Eisenbeiss, German Porcelain of the 18th Century, London, 1972, pp. 319-341, and for the engraved sources, see H. Backer, 'Komdienfiguren in der Sammlung Dr. Ernst Schneider, Düsseldorf', Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz, 1960, No. 50, p. 59 et seq. The commission has traditionally been associated with the Duke's marriage to Friederike von Sachsen-Gotha in 1743, and comedy figures were particularly apt for the Duke's table as he had played the role of Scaramouche in the Bauernwirtschaft to celebrate the visit of Friedrich Wilhelm I of Prussia to Dresden in 1729, see Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, Singapore, 2001, p. 198.