A LARGE PORCELAIN SCULPTURE "FISH ON WAVES" BY HUGO MEISEL

Estimated Value:

15.000 € - 20.000 €

Schätzpreis:

Description:

Aelteste Volkstedter Porzellanmanufaktur, ca 1921
H. 79 cm
Model by Hugo Meisel (1887-1966) on the occasion of the decoration of the trade fair house "Porzellan-Palais" in Leipzig in 1921. Fine polychrome onglaze painting. Model no. V9532. Crowned mirror mark in blue under glaze, signature "HM". Tiny, restored hairline crack on base.
Rhenish Collection. Formerly in a villa in Karlsbad, there according to the previous owner in the inventory since the 1920s.
The fish at hand is one of the five known examples from the Leipzig "Porzellan Palais", which were made around 1920: One unpainted version belongs to the inventory of the Hetjens Museum, another, also unpainted, in the Grassimuseum, Leipzig, the third in private ownership. According to the previous owner, who probably was in contact with Dr. Christoph Fritzsche, "the sculpture offered here is the only original painted version still in existence. Another painted example was lost during the war".
On the webpage of the Thuringian Museum Heidecksburg (Thüringer Landesmuseum Heidecksburg), Jeanette Lauterbach notes: "The large-scale sculptures from around 1920, which were moulded in the Aeltesten Volkstedter Porzellanfabrik AG, represent a high point in the work of the Thuringian porcelain artist Hugo Meisel. Together with Arthur Storch (1870-1947), Hugo Meisel received great recognition in 1921 for his collaboration in the design of the "Porzellan-Palais" trade fair building in Leipzig. For this purpose, both artists created around 20 models of imaginative large-scale sculptures between 1919 and 1921, the likes of which were previously only known from the Meissen Kändler period. Furthermore, the interior designers Prof. Hans Poelzig (1869-1936) and Gustav Partz (1883-1957) designed various porcelain lighting fixtures up to 2.50 m high, which also decorated the rooms of the palace. Judging by the press article published in 1921, this exhibition house with the porcelains from Thuringia was the sensation, it says "... the staircase shines in bright colours, enlivened by large artistic porcelain animal figures and candelabra, products of the Aeltesten Volkstedter Porzellanmanufaktur ...". These models, offered as garden sculptures, were presumably only moulded in five copies, some pieces being sparsely painted as variants. The fabulous animals "Good Times" (mockery) and "Bad Times" (doom) stood at the entrance to the first floor. The animal figure "Schlechte Zeiten" (Bad Times) sits on a plinth decorated with ornaments, the hind legs crossed, the upper body erect, strangling itself with the tail, the head is directed upwards to the right, the chest and lower body are hairy. From 1952 to 1958 Hugo Meisel was director of the then State Museums Heidecksburg, and this model belongs to an extensive bequest that entered the museum's holdings as a donation after his death."

Bidding Enquiry

previous lot Catalogue next lot