MEISSEN - Lot 449

MEISSEN Figure of Fröhlich standing on a rectangular cutaway base, wearing blue pants, yellow jacket and black hat. Unmarked. 18th century, circa 1740. Height Height : 24 cm. Three small chips on the edge of the base, a chip on the reverse of the vest, a chip on the edge of the hat. This statuette represents the Saxon court jester Joseph Fröhlich (1694-1757), a native of Tyrol, who was from 1727 to his death the entertainment advisor and illusionist to the Electoral and Royal Court (Kurtzweiliger und Kurürstlicher und Königlicher Hoftaschenspieler). A first bust portrait of Joseph Fröhlich was produced in Meissen by Johann Gottlieb Kirchner around 1730, and an engraving of Fröhlich was published in Dresden in 1729 by Christian Friedrich Boetius. In 1900, Karl Berling published a watercolor of a statuette of Fröhlich then housed in the chambre de the Tower in Dresden and dated 1733 (Karl Berling, Meissner Porzellan, 1900, pl. III, no. 4, p. 13). This statuette, missing since 1945, is directly inspired by the Boetius engraving. This statuette has been compared to an entry in the archives of the Meissen manufactory, which states that in 1733 a figure of Joseph was delivered to the Royal Prince of Poland and Serene Highness Elector of Saxony ("Für den Königl. Printzen von Pohlen und Littauen und Cour-Fürstl. Durchl. zu Sachsen [...] 1. Josephs Figur"). The archives of the Meissen factory records that in 1736 Johann Joachim Kaendler took up the Joseph Fröhlich Fröhlich and supplied a new, reworked version. He modified the figure again in 1737 and 1738. The majority of examples known to date are dated on the straps between 1736 and 1758 (for a comprehensive see Angela Gräfin von Wallwitz, "Früh Oder Spät? Oder Spät?. Zur datierung von Meissener Porzellanfiguren" in Keramos, n° 194/2006, pp. 29-68 and also Rainer Rückert, Der HofnarrJoseph Fröhlich, 1998).