A Meissen porcelain Commedia dell'Arte figure of Pantalone from the Duke of Weissenfels series, circa 1745, and a figure of Columbine, circa 1745-50

Columbine:

The Property of a Gentleman, sold, Christie’s, New York, 20 May 2014, lot 71 (part);

Acquired at the above sale.

This figure of Pantalone is loosely based on the 1728 engraving 'Habit de Pentalon Ancien', by François Joullain after Jacques Callot. The model is recorded in Reinicke's work records in March 1744 "I Pandelon in Thon reparirt", [1 clay Pandelon modelled in clay], and in April 1744: '1 Pandelon, 7 1/2 Zol hoch, zu bohsiren angefangen', [1 Pantalone, 7 1/2 Zoll high, started to model], see Reinhard Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell'Arte Fest der Komödianten, Stuttgart, 2001, p. 27. Kändler mentions in his reports in May 1744 that he corrected a figure of Pantalone, and further models from the series (Jansen, ibid, p. 28). A further example of this figure with this colouring was in the Collection of Giovanni and Gabriella Barilla, sold, Sotheby’s, London, 14 May 2012, lot 136. 

A very similar figure of Columbine holding a mask is illustrated in Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, exh. cat., New Haven, 2001, p. 315, cat. no. 120.