Description
Large, magnificent Meissen Rococo pendulum High, rocaille-shaped, open-worked, gilt bronze base with five-step staircase and adjoining decorative railing. In the center, a gold-framed base plate with a rocaille frame. Group composed on a rocky hill. Seated, crowned young lady in a white dress decorated with so-called Indian flowers, surrounded by two playing cupids. On both sides slightly recessed standing malabars playing music. Malabar in a fur-lined, pink coat over a floral patterned robe and long yellow trousers. Holding a hurdy-gurdy in her right arm. As a counterpart, a bearded Malabar playing a stringed instrument (added in the 19th century). On the reverse, ascending flowering branches of green painted iron with color painted, so-called Vincennes flowers. Tall, branched bronze stem as support for a round clock case framed like a cartouche. Glazed enamel dial with black Roman and Arabic numerals, marked "á Paris". Half and hour strike on bell. Thread suspension and sun pendulum. Polychrome painting with gold decoration. Designed by Friedrich Elias Meyer. Minimally rest/rep; h. 60 cm. 50 cm x 23 cm. The Meissen porcelain manufactory commissioned the Vincennes-Sèvres manufactory in Paris to produce flowering branches of this kind. A comparable flower arrangement with figurative depictions on a similarly designed bronze base from Paris can be found in the porcelain collection in the Dresden Zwinger and in the Bavarian National Museum. Luxurious arrangements of valuable porcelain figures combined with fire-gilded bronze mounts were a specialty of the "Marchands mercies"; these Paris-based dealers in luxury goods had the privilege of "combining imported goods and enhancing them by transforming them into ensembles of different materials". These pieces found their way into court collections and also ended up in the possession of wealthy financiers as cabinet pieces to decorate the rooms at festive events. Cf. cat. Museum Bad Pyrmont, Meissen porcelain, ill. p. 196; Rückert, ill. 1061. Röbbig, Kabinettstücke, p.59 ff. Provenance: from the liquidation of an important North German private collection, acquired at Schloss Ahlden, auction no. 95, lot 1120. A splendid Parisian gilt-bronze mounted Rococo pendule arranged with Meissen porcelain figures and Vincennes flowers. Minor restored/repaired. The 19th. C. malabar figure added later. Meissen/Paris. Circa 1745.
2409
Large, magnificent Meissen Rococo pendulum High, rocaille-shaped, open-worked, gilt bronze base with five-step staircase and adjoining decorative railing. In the center, a gold-framed base plate with a rocaille frame. Group composed on a rocky hill. Seated, crowned young lady in a white dress decorated with so-called Indian flowers, surrounded by two playing cupids. On both sides slightly recessed standing malabars playing music. Malabar in a fur-lined, pink coat over a floral patterned robe and long yellow trousers. Holding a hurdy-gurdy in her right arm. As a counterpart, a bearded Malabar playing a stringed instrument (added in the 19th century). On the reverse, ascending flowering branches of green painted iron with color painted, so-called Vincennes flowers. Tall, branched bronze stem as support for a round clock case framed like a cartouche. Glazed enamel dial with black Roman and Arabic numerals, marked "á Paris". Half and hour strike on bell. Thread suspension and sun pendulum. Polychrome painting with gold decoration. Designed by Friedrich Elias Meyer. Minimally rest/rep; h. 60 cm. 50 cm x 23 cm. The Meissen porcelain manufactory commissioned the Vincennes-Sèvres manufactory in Paris to produce flowering branches of this kind. A comparable flower arrangement with figurative depictions on a similarly designed bronze base from Paris can be found in the porcelain collection in the Dresden Zwinger and in the Bavarian National Museum. Luxurious arrangements of valuable porcelain figures combined with fire-gilded bronze mounts were a specialty of the "Marchands mercies"; these Paris-based dealers in luxury goods had the privilege of "combining imported goods and enhancing them by transforming them into ensembles of different materials". These pieces found their way into court collections and also ended up in the possession of wealthy financiers as cabinet pieces to decorate the rooms at festive events. Cf. cat. Museum Bad Pyrmont, Meissen porcelain, ill. p. 196; Rückert, ill. 1061. Röbbig, Kabinettstücke, p.59 ff. Provenance: from the liquidation of an important North German private collection, acquired at Schloss Ahlden, auction no. 95, lot 1120. A splendid Parisian gilt-bronze mounted Rococo pendule arranged with Meissen porcelain figures and Vincennes flowers. Minor restored/repaired. The 19th. C. malabar figure added later. Meissen/Paris. Circa 1745.
