A Berlin KPM porcelain model of a bagpipe player from the "Indischer Festzug" centrepiece

A Berlin KPM porcelain model of a bagpipe player from the "Indischer Festzug" centrepiece

Model no. 10583. Rare and finely painted group on a white oval plinth. Signed "C RESCHKE 1913" on the reverse. Blue sceptre mark, red imperial orb mark, numbered 140/944 in black. H 21.5 cm.
Model by Carl Reschke, November 1914, decor presumably designed and carried out by Gertrud Kant, after 1918.

The KPM manufactory purchased the "Indischer Festzug" (Indian procession) centrepiece from the sculptor Carl Reschke in March 1913. No records of the extent of the design or details of individual pieces are known. It was not produced in its entirety due to the outbreak of the war, and only five groups are known to exist today. Namely, alongside the bagpipe player, there was an Indian man with two panthers, a monkey in a wheelbarrow, a figure riding on a camel and one on a gnu. The last group, also decorated by Gertrud Kant, was once housed in the Gronert collection and was offered at auction by Lempertz in Berlin on 3rd May 2017 as lot 202.

Literature

Cf. Salon-Blatt, 46/1918, p. 1076 f.
Cf. Köllmann, Berliner Porzellan 1763 - 1963, Brunswick 1966, vol. 2, plate 257a.

Cf. von Treskow, Die Jugendstil-Porzellane der KPM. Bestandskatalog der Königlichen Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin 1896 - 1914, Munich 1971, pp. 109, 130, 328.

Cf. Jarchow, Berliner Porzellan im 20. Jahrhundert, Hamburg 1988, p. 226.

Cf. cat. Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin 1763 - 2013, Petersberg 2013, no. 58.