EIGHT MEISSEN FIGURES OF GUINEA FOWL, CIRCA 1741 |

Asking Price: $90,000modeled by J. J. Kändler, each bird facing to the left standing astride a tree stump applied with leaves, four with white speckling and white patches to their backs, the other four with white speckling only, one with crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue, two with pencilled numbers 12458 and 12459, 8 pieces

Four: Maison Jansen, Paris; where acquired by Olive, Lady Baillie, 29 June 1937
Lowndes House, London (dining room);
One pair: London, Christie's, 3 July 1978, lot 68;
Another pair: London, Christie's, 31 March 1980, lot 210;
All: Property from the Collection of Sir Gawaine and Lady Baillie, sold, London, Sotheby's, 1 May 2013, lots 196-197;
Where acquired by the present owner.

The September 1741 entry in Kändler's Taxa records 'Eine Perl Henn in Thon poussirt von mittelmässiger Größe, welche ebens falls Compagnon eine andere Perhenne abgeben soll, damit solche Stüke allzeit gegeneinander sehen' ['Modelled in clay a guinea fowl of medium size, which will build the groundwork for another companion so that these pieces will always face each other']. A similar pair and a single figure are listed and illustrated respectively by Rainer Rückert in 1966, and Carl Albiker in 1935.¹

_{1. Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810, Munich, 1966, p. 198, nos. 1129-30 and p. 201; Carl Albiker, Die Meissner Porzellantiere im 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1935, pl. XXXIII, no. 136}