Lot 66*
A Meissen cockerel teapot and an associated cover, circa 1735
7 December 2011, 10:30 GMT
London, New Bond StreetSold for £13,125 inc. premium
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A Meissen cockerel teapot and an associated cover, circa 1735
Modelled by J.J. Kaendler, with an outstretched neck forming the spout, the tail-feathers curled to form the handle, the feathers vividly painted in coloured enamels, silver and gilding, the associated cover with a dog finial, 8.5cm high; 19.5cm long, crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue (cover restored and overpainted, minor retouching to green enamel) (2)
Footnotes
Provenance:
Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collection, Basel;
Private Collection, Switzerland
Literature:
Pauls-Eisenbeiss 1972, p.518f.
Loosely based on a Chinese Yixing example, this pot is the rarest variety of cockerel teapots made at Meissen, the more common form showing the cockerel turning its head back (see the following lot).
A teapot of this form, with a different knop, is illustrated by Carl Albiker, Die Meissner Porzellantiere, pl. 147, where the author links it to the following entry in Kaendler's work records for May 1734: 'Ebenfalls ist noch zu einem Theepot ein Hahn gefertigt worden von mittelmässiger Grösse, wo ebenfalls der Thee zum Schnabel rausläuft. Der Schwanz is so beschaffen, dass man den Hahn dabei gut in die Höhe heben kann und daraus einschenken' [In addition, a cockerel was finished as a teapot, of average size, where the tea also flows from the beak. The tail is finished so that one can well lift the cockerel high and pour from it]. Examples of both are illustrated by Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan (1966), pl. 277, nos. 1126 and 1127, where, on p. 198, the author links Kaendler's entry to the cockerel rather than the hen, and suggests a date for the model of around 1735 for the present form.
