These two figures, with their exceptionally richly decorated and gilded red coats, are clearly made as a pair, but are based on two Meissen models of dancers which were probably not originally conceived together.
The female dancer is modelled closely on a figure by J. J. Kaendler[i] whilst the man has been cleverly adapted and improved with more subtle hand gestures from another dancer by Kaendler.[ii]
[i] Hackenbroch 1956 p. ??? for the Meissen figures from Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Irwin Untermeyer bequest, no.1974.28.116
[ii] Adams 2004, p. 76, no. 197
Condition:
The male figure has been broken off the base through the knee and restored.
Provenance:
James A. Lewis & Son, Inc., New York City (according to label)
Bonhams, London, 9 December 2009, lot 53
With E & H Manners
Mavis Watney Collection
References:
Adams 2004
Yvonne Adams, Meissen Figures 1730-1775, The Kaendler Period (Schiffer Publishing, 2004)
Hackenbroch 1956
Yvonne Hackenbroch, Meissen and other Continental Porcelain Faience and Enamel in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, Harvard University Press, 1956
