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Lot 1142* - A202 Decorative Arts - Thursday, 22. September 2022, 10.00 AM

GREEN WOODPECKER

Meissen, Modell ca. 1733/34 by J. J. Kändler; J.G. Ehder ca. 1740.
Woodpecker with open beak, sitting on a tree stump with side branches with applied and painted May beetles and leaves. The head painted red and black, the plumage painted green and black, the belly dotted with gray. Underglaze blue sword mark, double press number 55.
H 27.5 cm.

With restorations.

The woodpecker, tree chopper or green woodpecker was designed in two versions in 1733, and in 1734, in a larger version of 31 cm, for the Saxon Court, and found its way into the Royal Palace Inventory with the Johanneum number N=282-W and N=354-W. Both designs were listed under form numbers 55 and 56 (S. Wittwer, Galerie der Meissener Tiere, 2004, p. 342).

A pair of the earliest life-size specimens with Johanneum numbers were formerly part of the Royal Saxon Collections, Auction at Rudolph Lepke, 1919 (Lot Nos. 105 and 106), later in the Ole Olsen Collection, and until 2005 in the Ezra & Cecile Zilkha Collection (see Sotheby's New York 2005, Lot No. 28); also from the Royal Saxon Collections, Auction Part II at Rudolph Lepke, 1920, Lot Nos. 181 and 182, cf. G. Röbbig, Kabinettstücke, 2006, p. 86, Cat. No. 2.

With the demolition of the Japanese Palace - project by Augustus III, after the death of his father Augustus the Strong in 1733, further models were produced in a somewhat smaller version and with a different tree trunk and various applications, like the model on offer, presumably for sale to the public in the Manufactory. The Work Report from March 1734: "Im Monath Martio 1734 sind auf hiesiger Köngl.Pohl. und Churfürstl. Sächs. Porcellain Fabrique an Neuen Modellen gefertiget worden...einen Grünspecht auch in Lebens Grösser und ruhet auf Einem verzierten Postament, Johann Joachim Kändler."

Johann Gottfried Ehder lists in his work report in May 1740 "11) 2 Spechte nebst allem Zubehör in Thon verputzt." (UA Meissen, Rapporte, I from 14, May 1740, XXXIII, p. 104). The revisions of the early base from the Japanese Palace can be seen in the model on offer, and probably go back to J.G. Ehder.

Comparative items:
Irwin Untermyer Collection (Y. Hackenbroch, Metropolitan Museum, Plate17); René Fribourg Collection (Sotheby's London, 15 October 1963, Lot No. 474, with double press number 55); Laurance S. Rockefeller Estate (Sotheby's, 11 October 2005, Lot No. 196); Sir Gawaine and Lady Baillie Collection (Sotheby's London, 1 May 2013, Lot No. 7).


CHF 15 000 / 18 000 | (€ 15 460 / 18 560)