A rare Frankenthal arbour group, circa 1756-59

Modelled by J.W. Lanz, with a cupid in disguise as a pastor seated on a chair holding a book inscribed 'Maitre de l'amour', a bow and quiver beneath the chair, a lady kneeling in front and another standing beside him, both in elegant costume, a pierced arbour at the back, the base and edge of arbour with gilt-edged and blue scrollwork, 20.4cm high, rampant lion mark in underglaze-blue, impressed PH and 2 (some damage)

Provenance:
Ernst Blumka (1886-1969), Vienna (to 1938) and London;
Thence by descent to the Eveline Newgas Collection, London

This early model is after the engraving 'L'Amour précepteur', circa 1730, by François-Bernard Lépicié after a pastel by Charles Coypel. It was published with the inscription 'L'Air grave que je fais paroitre/ Belles ne doit point allarmer, Il caracterise le maitre/ Et ne fait pas moins aimer.' [The solemn air I display/ should not alarm the beauties, it characterises the teacher/ and does not make him less loved.].

Another example of the model is in the Pauls-Eisenbeiss Collection, Basel; see E. Pauls-Eisenbeiss, German Porcelain of the 18th Century (1972), vol. II, pp. 104-105. A version without the arbour is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, and in the collection of the Stadtmuseum, Ludwigshafen. The seated Cupid in disguise holding the book also exists as a single figure; see B. Beaucamp-Markowsky, Frankenthaler Porzellan - Die Plastik (2008), no.45, pp.143-144.