An Extremely Rare Model of a Meissen Gull, Circa 1750

An Extremely Rare Model of a Meissen Gull naturalistically modelled by J.J. Kaendler, standing on a grassy mound amidst reeds, webbed yellow feet spread with talons painted black. The bird’s textured plumage is painted in black and grey with tawny feathers painted along its breast and arched neck and head.

Further Details: An extremely rare model, known examples are as follows:

1 & 2. A pair in the Rijksmuseum (BK-17499-A & BK-17499-B)
3 & 4. A pair in the Sheafer bequest in Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (1974.356.398)
5 & 6. A pair formerly in the Untermyer Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and sold at Sotheby’s New York 26 October 2012 lot 300
7 & 8. A pair formerly in the Wrightsman Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, and sold at Sotheby’s New York 14 April 1980 lot 120
9. As den Blaauwen notes, ‘The example in the Schloss in Dresden illustrated by Albiker was probably lost in 1945’
10. A single figure sold at Sotheby’s, London, May 5, 1970, lot 98 and again in the same rooms on July 10, 1973, lot 116.
11 & 12. A pair formerly in the Laurence S. Rockefeller Collection sold at Sotheby’s New York 11 October, 2005, lot 201.

Den Blaauwen mentions 3 more singles or pairs known in the Jacques Balsan, Palm Beach Collection; Jhr. Aldred Boreel Collection sold in 1908; and at Esders, Paris sold in 1941.