Bidspirit auction | Meissen ”Columbina” Porcelain Figure

Meissen ”Columbina” Porcelain Figure - Marked on the bottom of the figure.    Dimensions: 9” x 5” x 3 1/2”    Condition: Scuffs to the base. Overall, the figure is in very good condition.    About: Meissen was established in 1710 by Augustus the Strong, after Johann Friedrich Bottger produced Europe's first true hard-paste porcelain, and its crossed-swords mark — in use from 1720 — is one of the oldest trademarks in existence. Johann Joachim Kandler, chief modeller from 1733, effectively founded porcelain figure sculpture as an art form. Columbina is the quick-witted maid of the commedia dell'arte, Harlequin's counterpart, normally shown unmasked or holding a mask as an attribute. Italian troupes toured Dresden constantly in the early eighteenth century, and Meissen modelled her more than once — Kandler's Columbine and Pantalone group of about 1736, and the single figures he and Peter Reinicke made about 1743–44. Both were reissued through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, so the mark dates a piece rather than the model.