An extremely rare pair of Meissen Cats modelled by J.J.Kaendler, seated on their haunches, the first looking to one side, tail curled out in front and the right paw raised up to the face, the second in similar pose but with a mouse in its mouth, its left paw raised up to support the mouse, both beautifully decorated and very finely painted in tones of ginger, grey and black and each with a white undersides to their bellies, the ears pricked up and the alert eyes wide open, raised up on a green pad bases.

The rarest of the three Kaendler models of the seated cats, one modelled with a mouse in its mouth, the pair to it with one paw raised and then this model, which would appear to be modelled on its own. See the H. Lloyd Hawkins Jr. collection of Meissen Porcelain at the New Orleans Museum of Art, pl. 63.

The models are first recorded in Kaendler’s taxa report for sept 1736, which lists: ‘Stuk Kleine Katzgen aufs Lager in Thon poussiert, Davon eine sitzend, die andere aber, wie sie eine Maus in Maule hat vorgestellet ist.’ (2 small cats modelled in clay in the storehouse, of which one is seated, the other with a mouse in the mouth). See Carl Albiker, Die Meissner Porzellantiere in 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1959, p 24, no. 216 for the companion holding a mouse and work record entries for 1736, 1741, and 1740-1748 relating to both models. A similar rare pair of cat models with ormolu mounts in the collection of Sir Gawaine and Lady Bailey. Leeds Castle.

Marks:  Cross swords mark in underglaze blue