A FRANKENTHAL PORCELAIN FIGURE OF COLUMBINE FROM THE COMMEDIA DELL'ARTE

This extremely rare figure is from a series modelled by Johann Wilhelm Lanz, who had previously been the chief modeller at Strasbourg, in Alsace. Once Hannong had discovered hard-paste porcelain, because Vincennes had been granted a monopoly in France by King Louis XV, Hannong established his new factory across the border under the protection of Elector Carl Theodor, the Elector Palatine. Lanz moved to Frankenthal in 1755. For a figure of Harlequin in the Pflueger Collection, now in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, see Hugo Morley-Fletcher, Early European Porcelain & Faience as collected by Kiyi and Edward Pflueger, London, 1993, Vol. I, pp. 180-181.