Large Group Of Meissen Porcelain Figurines “gärtnergruppe Am Baum”, Thanksgiving

Meissen Manufactory – Large Figurine Group "Gärtnergruppe am Baum" (Gardeners' Group at the Tree), Design Michel Victor Acier 1772, Meissen 19th–Early 20th Century Michel Victor Acier (Versailles 1736 – Dresden 1799) · Meissen Manufactory · Knauf Sword Mark 1860–1924 · 1st Choice · Model D.93 · H. 49 cm

A large Meissen porcelain figurine group, Gärtnergruppe am Baum (Gardeners' Group at the Tree) — an allegorical representation of the harvest and thanksgiving — model D.93, designed by Michel Victor Acier in 1772 and executed by the Meissen Manufactory between 1860 and 1924 (knauf sword mark, Knaufschwertermarke, underglaze blue, 1st choice). Incised model number D.93, casting number 21. Height 49 cm.

The composition — of remarkable richness and complexity — presents on an ornamental landscape base with central rock and tree, three Rococo couples playing bagpipes and hurdy-gurdy, and a small dog dancing and eating, in exuberant polychrome animation. Naturalistic decoration in fine underglaze and overglaze polychrome painting, heightened with gold staffage. The top of the tree with its foliage has been restored; the piece is otherwise in very good condition for its age.

Michel Victor Acier (Versailles, 6 August 1736 – Dresden, 17 February 1799), a French sculptor trained at the Académie Royale in Paris under Étienne-Maurice Falconet, was recruited to the Meissen Manufactory in 1764 as second Modellmeister alongside Johann Joachim Kändler, whose artistic direction he shared and, upon Kändler's death in 1775, assumed alone until 1781. His work represents the pivotal moment between Rococo and Classicism in the history of the manufactory — a sentimental and bourgeois vocabulary, inspired by the ideals of the Enlightenment, in marked contrast to Kändler's exuberant Baroque. His works are held in the collections of the British Museum in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Princeton University Art Museum. A remarkable biographical fact: Michel Victor Acier was the maternal great-great-grandfather of the composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky — an artistic legacy spanning two centuries and two cultures.

• Height: 49 cm
• Material: porcelain · underglaze and overglaze polychrome decoration · gold staffage
• Marks: knauf sword mark (Knaufschwertermarke), underglaze blue, 1860–1924 · 1st choice
• Model: D.93 · casting number 21
• Design: Michel Victor Acier, 1772
• Production: Meissen Manufactory, 1860–1924
• Restoration: top of tree with foliage restored · otherwise very good condition for age
• Literature: Bergmann, Meissener Figuren, vol. II, p. 60, ill. 91
• Public collections: British Museum, London · Victoria and Albert Museum, London · Princeton University Art Museum

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Available for viewing by appointment at our Düsseldorf gallery.

Keywords integrated: Meissen, Gärtnergruppe am Baum, Michel Victor Acier 1772, model D.93, Knaufschwertermarke 1860-1924, Rococo porcelain figurine group, British Museum, V&A London, Tchaikovsky