Lot 334 | Meissen | 14 PORCELAIN FIGURINES FROM THE CRIS DE PARIS

14 PORCELAIN FIGURINES FROM THE CRIS DE PARIS.

Meissen.
Date: End 19th c to end 20th c.
Maker/Designer: Model J. J. Kaendler, P. Reinicke.
Technique: Porcelain, enriched in colours, golden.
Description: Fourteen figurines form the der Cris de Paris series:
Crier with appleas, crier with flowers, crier with grapes, crier with oysters, crier with lemonade, crier with grapes, crier with pastries, crier with birds and eggs, a hunter, crier with fruits, crier with jewellery and gallantries, crier with oil, crier with drum, crier with apples with jug on the head

In the 18th century, the streets of major European cities were filled with the cries of various traders and craftsmen offering their goods and services, often in rhyme or song form. Their offers were mostly aimed at members of the same lower social class, which meant that wages were low, competition was fierce and life was often hard. Criers were a popular motif in art, whether because of their faces marked by life or a romanticised perception of their way of life.

This subject was also explored in Meissen. In the early 1750s, Johann Joachim Kaendler travelled to Paris on behalf of August III and met J. Hüet, the most important Parisian dealer in Meissen porcelain. On this occasion, he met Hüet's brother Christophe, a well-known engraver and decorative painter. Kaendler commissioned him to produce a series of 31 master drawings with Parisian exclamation marks in the Rococo style typical of the period. These pen and ink drawings are still preserved in the Meissen manufactory archive today.
With 35 models, the 'Cris de Paris' form the largest series of themed figures in the manufactory's programme. Traders dressed in the delicate colours of the Rococo period go about their work on rocaille bases decorated with gold. Most of the models are by Peter Reinicke. Nevertheless, some of the figures show Kaendler's handwriting. He evidently assisted Reinicke in his work or reworked models afterwards.
However, not all of the criers refer to the models supplied by Hüet. Some of the finely crafted figures are based on depictions by Boucher or Watteau, while others were probably the product of their modellers' imagination. By turning to everyday depictions, such as those depicted in the exclamation marks, the Meissen manufactory was addressing an increasingly bourgeois public.
Shortly before the outbreak of the Seven Years' War, this reorientation was decisive for the later economic success of the manufactory, whose products became increasingly accessible to a wider public..
Measurement: Height 13,5-16cm.
Mark: Swords mark, painted blue under glaze, various year marks, painter's numbers and model numbers. .
Enclosed: Crier with apples with jug on the head.