Sophie von der Goltz
Head of Sale
Lot 52*
A Meissen group of "The Spanish Lovers", circa 1740-45
3 July 2025, 14:00 BST
London, New Bond Street£10,000 - £15,000
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Raphael Machiels
Associate Specialist
Ghislaine Howard
Sale Coordinator
A Meissen group of "The Spanish Lovers", circa 1740-45
Modelled by J.J. Kaendler, the gentleman wearing a gilt-edged black suit with yellow cuffs, with a grey-lined iron-red cloak over ohs right shoulder and a puce hat with turquoise rosette, his shoes with yellow bows, the lady wearing a blue hat with feathers, yellow bodice, white skirt decorated with flower sprigs and a gilt-edged green underskirt, the base applied with leaves and flowers, 18cm high, faint traces of crossed swords mark in blue (some retouching to her bodice, minor restoration to extremeties)
Footnotes
Based on an engraving by Pierre Filœul after the painting Le baiser donné by Jean-Baptiste Pater of 1736, this group is not mentioned in Kaendler's Taxa or work records but is referred to as the "Spanier Gropgen" [Spanish group] in a specification of figures and groups completed by the Weiße Corps in overtime in January 1740 (quoted in Rainer Rückert, "Zur Staffierung der Gesichter von Meißener Porzellanfiguren, Teil IV", Keramos 153 (July 1996): 156).
Other examples of this group were sold at Bonhams London, 7 July 2022, lot 44; and in these Rooms, The Merkle Collection, Part II, 31 October 2024, lot 26.
