Meissen, ca. 1745.

Model by J. J. Kändler. Pair of works, naturalistically painted in grey and shades of brown. Underglaze blue sword marks.

H 22 cm and 24.5 cm. Hairline cracks and repairs.

Provenance:
- Collection Siegfried Salz, Auction Paul Cassirer and Hugo Helbing Berlin, 26 March 1929, Nos. 38/39.
- Collection Nyffeler, Christie's London, 9 June 1986, Lot No. 96.
- Swiss private collection.

Comparable models from a private collection in Darmstadt, cf. R. Rückert, Meissener Porzellan, 1966, p. 194, No. 1094; Collection Wark, Early Meissen Porcelain, Florida 1979, p. 232, Nos. 539-540 (with a puppy in a variation). Hanns and Elisabeth Weinberg Collections, Sotheby's New York, November 2006, Lot No. 544 (male).

Dr. Nyffeler was one of the leading porcelain collectors in the 1950s. As President of the Association of "Friends of Swiss Ceramics" since 1955, he was instrumental in organising the exhibition "Beauty of the 18th Century" at the Zurich Kunsthaus in the same year and also exhibited some of his collection there.