A Meissen porcelain Commedia dell’Arte figure of Scaramouche from the Duke of Weissenfels Series, circa 1745

Sotheby’s, London, 28 May 2009, lot 327;

Acquired at the above sale.

This figure belongs to a series of table ornaments commissioned from the Meissen manufactory by Johann Adolph II, Duke of Saxe-Weissenfels (1685–1746), first cousin of Augustus the Strong. The duke is believed to have ordered the set to mark his marriage to Frederike von Sachsen-Gotha in 1743. Representing characters from the Commedia dell’Arte, this ambitious series is traditionally thought to comprise eighteen figures, modelled by Peter Reinicke and overseen by Johann Joachim Kändler, who reworked some of the models. Most of the figures draw on engravings by François Joullain, some of which were after designs by Watteau, Bérain, Gillot, Callot, and Coypel, published in Luigi Riccoboni’s Histoire du théâtre italien (Paris, 1728). Reinicke’s work notes for 1744 mention fourteen of the figures from the series, including Tartaglia, Pantalone, Scapin, Narcissin de Malalbergo, Scaramouche and Harlequin 'Ancien’. For further discussion of the series see the essay by Meredith Chilton, ‘The Duke of Weissenfels Series’, in Reinhard Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell'Arte: Carnival of Comedy Players, Stuttgart, 2001, pp. 16-20; see also Reinhard Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell'Arte Fest der Komödianten, Stuttgart, 2001, p. 57, cat. no. 41. For the engraved sources, see H. E. Backer, 'Komödienfiguren in der Sammlung Dr. Ernst Schneider’, Düsseldorf', Keramik-Freunde der Schweiz, 1960.