THE PORCELAIN CIRCA 1760, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK, THE ORMOLU MOUNTS OF A LATER DATE

Though the present lot dates to circa 1760, the Meissen manufactory began creating woodpecker models decades earlier. In 1740 Johann Gottlieb Ehder reworked Kändler’s earlier models of 1733 and 1734, principally altering the bases, and his Arbeitsbericht [work report] for May 1740 lists: zwey Spechte nebst allem Zubehör in Thon verputzt [two woodpeckers with accessories modeled in clay]⁽¹⁾. A pair of Ehder’s woodpeckers are illustrated by Gerhard Röbbig, Kabinettstücke, Die Meissener Porzellanvögel von Johann Joachim Kändler, Amira-Palais October-November 2006 Exhibition Catalogue, Munich, 2006, pp. 88-89 and p. 229, Kat Nr. 3, and a pair of the earlier models by Kändler are illustrated p. 87 and pp. 228-229, Kat Nr. 2. Kändler’s work report for February 1733 records that he modeled: Einen Grünspecht [green woodpecker]⁽²⁾, and the entry for March 1734 records: Einen Grünspecht auch in Lebens Grösse und rubet auf einem verzierten Postament [a green woodpecker, also life-size, mounted on an ornate pedestal]⁽³⁾.

1. Sarah-Katharina Andres-Acevedo, Die Autonomen Figürlichen Plastiken Johann Joachim Kaendlers und seiner Werkstatt, Stuttgart, 2023, vol. 1, p. 233.
2. Ulrich Pietsch, Die Arbeitsberichte des Meissener Porzellanmodelleurs, Johann Joachim Kaendler, Leipzig, 2002, p. 18.
3. Ulrich Pietsch, ibid., p. 23.