A Pair of Meissen Indian Ring-Necked Parakeets, circa 1741 - Photo Sotheby's

modelled by Johann Joachim Kändler, each perched on the stump of a cherry tree applied with fruit, various insects and flowering vines, one eating a lump of sugar. height 11 1/4 and 12 1/8 in. 28.6 and 30.8 cm - Estimation: 40,000 - 60,000 USD

PROVENANCE: Baroness Renée de Becker-Remy, New York
Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York

LITTERATURE: Carl Christian Dauterman, The Wrightsman Collection, Volume IV, pp. 48-49, cat nos. 17A and B

NOTE DE CATALOGUE: Kändler's work records list his working on models of these parakeets in June of 1741: "Vor Ihro Excellenz die Frau Gräfin Von Moschinska einen Indianischen Vogel in Ziemlicher Größe in dero Logis nach dem Leben in Thon poussiret, und solche gestalt vorgestellet wie er auf einem Kirsch Ast sietzet und ein Stücklein Zucker aus der Pfote frißt" ("For her Excellency the Countess Moschinska an Indian bird of suitable size, modelled from life in clay at her residence, and presented sitting on a cherry bough, eating a little lump of sugar clasped in his claw"). 

Similar pairs are illustrated by Carl Albiker, Die Meissen Porzellantiere, (1935 edition), pl. XXVI, no. 89, and by Carl Christian Dauterman, The Wrightsman Collection, Volume IV, p. 45 and 47, cat nos. 16A, B, recently sold in these rooms, Property from the Collections of Lily & Edmond J. Safra, October 19, 2011, lot 758.

Examples of the parakeet with the lump of sugar are illustrated by Carl Albiker, op. cit., (1959 edition), no. 101; by Karl Berling, Meissen China, An Illustrated History, Table 4, no. 2; and by Yvonne Hackebroch, Meissen and Other Continental Porcelain, Faïence and Enamel in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, pl. 8, fig. 7. An example of the other model is illustrated in the Catalogue of the Collection of Frau Emma Budge, sold by Paul Graupe, Berlin, on September 29, 1937, pl. 121, lot 770. Further examples of both models are illustrated by Gerhard Röbbig, ed., Kabinettstücke, Die Meissener Porzellanvögel von Johann Joachim Kändler 1706-1775, pp. 126-29, nos. 19 and 20, and p. 130, no. 21. 

Sotheby's. Important English and European Decorative Arts. New York | 26 oct. 2012 www.sothebys.com