Hurdy-gurdy player: C.27-1954

Titles

Hurdy-gurdy player

Maker(s)

Meissen Porcelain Factory (Factory)
Reinicke, Peter (Modeller)

Description

Hard-paste porcelain, painted in enamels, and gilt

Hard-paste porcelain painted in yellow, green, red, brown, and black enamels, and gilt. The unglazed base has a small round ventilation hole near the back. The rounded square low mound base has a tree stump at the back, and is decorated on top with applied leaves, and a red, a yellow and a mauve flower. The hurdy-gurdy player stands on his left foot with right leg forward. He carries a large white hurdy-gurdy outlined in black, and with his right hand turns the handle of the wheel which sounds the strings, while with his left hand he plays upon the keys which stop the strings and thus obtain the notes. He has long brownish-black hair trailing untidily down his back, and wears a black hat with the brim turned up at the sides, a brown waistcoat with gold buttons, a long collarless white coat with two gold buttons at the top of the two back pleats, yellow breeches, white hose, and black shoes with yellow bows.

Notes

History note: Hyam & Co., London, from whom purchased by Lord Fisher on 22 November 1926 for £35; Cecil Vavasseur, 2nd Baron Fisher of Kilverstone and his wife Jane, Kilverstone Hall, Norfolk

Legal notes

Given by Lord Fisher and Lady Fisher through the National Art Collections Fund

Place(s) associated

• Meissen ⪼ Saxony ⪼ Germany

Acquisition and important dates

Method of acquisition: Given (1954-01-14) by Fisher, Lord and Lady

Dating

Mid 18th Century
Frederick Augustus II (1696-1763)
Production date: circa AD 1745

Note

This figure belongs to a set of Cries of Paris by Peter Reinicke or by Reinicke and Joahann Joachim Kaendler between 1745 and 1747. The Hurdy-gurdy player, Meissen model no. 960, was probably modelled by Peter Reinicke after Le Vieilleux, the 8th print in Études prises dans le bas Peuple ou les Cris de Paris, Quatrième Suitte, 1742, engraved by the comte de Caylus (1692-1765), after drawings by Edmé Bouchardon (1689-1762). The prints were issued in sets of twelve, two in 1737, and one in 1738, 1742 and 1746. The complete series, accompanied by the drawings, was bound and given by Bouchardon to his friend, Jean-Piere Mariette, the celebrated Parisian printseller and connoisseur, and is now in the British Museum (Print Room, Imp. 197.8c). The figure of the Hurdy-gurdy player is transposed from the figure in the print, and corresponds with the original drawing.