790 Important early figure of a miner with a French horn. Around 1725.
Georg Fritzsche 1697 Meißen – 1756 ebenda
Porcelain, glazed, painting over glaze with light incarnate parts, black, gold, yellow and brown. A miner in Saxon in a Saxon parade dress leaning against a crystalline base, holding a French horn to his mouth in his left hand, his right hand resting at his side. The black miner's hat with Meissen swords mark and wavy contour line on the front, incised in over glaze gold. White jacket with gold button placket, black leather with small pocket, white trousers and stockings, high-buckled black
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knee braces and black shoes. The bottom with the swords mark in underglaze blue in an oval depression.
Provenance: Collection Richard Seyffarth, Dresden. The renowned porcelain restorer worked for the Dresden Castle and the House of Wettin. He contributed to restore the porcelain collection in the Dresden Zwinger after 1945.
In 1949 a photography showing three miner musicians and one miner with goblet was first published in an article of the periodical "Der Anschnitt" (ed. Deutsches Bergbau Museum Bochum). Presumably the photography was taken during an exhibition in the Dresden Porcelain Collection where four Meissen miner figures which did not belong to the original inventory of the castle were on display in 1922. By comparing the offered miner with goblet from the Collection Seyffarth to the image from 1949 it can be asserted that it is the very same figure and consequently the single known version.
The theme of the miner has early been introduced into the field of figurine production at the famous Meissen Porcelain Manufactory. Augustus II the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (1670–1733) was a great supporter, not only of Johann Friedrich Böttger (1682–1719) but also of the Saxon mining industry. Next to craftsmen originating from several trades such as silversmiths, potters or pewter makers, many previous miners worked for Böttger. During that time the stress lay on the technical character of moulding objects and figurines. Throughout the 1720s an employee was sought after who would be able to craft more complicated and independent sculptural works in porcelain. Still, most sculptors were occupied by working on the monarch's residence in Dresden. Before Johann Gottlieb Kirchner (1706–1768), the first modeller and master modeller in Meissen entered the manufactory in Meissen, the former Georg Fritzsche excelled in modelling figures even without a template as he was the only one with such technical abilities. It is confirmed in writing that Fritzsche modelled figurines between 1723 and 1728, although most archive documents in the manufactory from that time have not been processed yet. An attribution of the miner with goblet which is the only known example to Georg Fritzsche seems plausible. Due to the reduced painting and the emphasis on the white material porcelain it is assumed that this figurine is one of the earliest mouldings of a miner in Meissen porcelain. Further examples of miners with instruments attributed to Georg Fritzsche have been located in well-known private collections such as collection Simon Goldblatt, England or in the Indianapolis Museum of Art (previously collection Otto Blohm, Germany). The series of miners attributed to Georg Fritzsche represent a crucial link between the earliest known example of a figurative miner in Böttger porcelain from 1719 and the figural miners of Johann Joachim Kändler from 1745/1750. It is assumed that these miners were used as table decoration for mining-festivities.
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The stand with two smaller chips on the front and sides. The bottom of the base with a firing crack, partially rough-grained and with shrinkage. The thumb of the right hand with a notch on the verso due to its manufacture. The lower bend of the horn broken twice and replaced. The rim of the bell's mouth possibly remodelled in time of origin, with small chips there, the mouthpiece and leadpipe with hairline cracks. The upper half of the bow probably lost and remodelled, this as well as the leadpipe and mouthpiece with new varnish and gilding. The left ear with two minimal retouchings of superficial material rubbing (ca. 0.4 x 3 mm). Isolated tiny burn marks. The black onglaze minimally rubbed in places and with very isolated scratch marks, the gilding partly minimally rubbed.
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H. 14,8 cm.
Auction 67
