A pair of Meissen porcelain bouquetière figures, circa 1740-44

Edmond de Rothschild Collection, his (anonymous) sale, Christie's, London, 17 October 1977, lot 166;

Anonymous sale, Koller, Zürich, 22 September 2022, lot 1147;

Acquired at the above sale.

A pair of these models, formerly in the collection of Dr. Fritz Mannheimer (1890-1939), Amsterdam & Paris, is in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. BK-17488, illustrated in Abraham L. den Blaauwen, Meissen Porcelain in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, 2000, pp. 438-39, cat. nos. 320-21. Den Blaauwen notes Kändler’s Taxa records for 1740-44, which probably relate to the present models: ‘1. Weibsbild mit der Weinbutte auffin Rücken darein Bluhmen zu sezen 6. Thlr’, [1. A woman holding a wine jug on her back, with flowers placed in it: 6 thalers]; and ‘1. Gärtner Figur mit einem Fusze auff einem Kürbsze ruhen, mit beyden Händen aber einem Korb haltend, Bluhmen drein zu sezen 6. Thlr’, [A gardener figure resting with one foot on a pumpkin, but holding a basket with both hands, into which he is placing flowers 6 thalers]. A further pair of these figures was in the famed pre-war collection of Emma Budge, Hamburg, sold, Hans W. Lange, Berlin, 27-29 September 1937, lot 832.