A rare Meissen ormolu-mounted figure of Harlequin with a 'Pass Glass', circa 1740

Modelled by J.J. Kaendler, seated on a rocky mound drinking from a 'pass glass' in his right hand and holding goat bagpipes on his left arm, wearing a black beret, a half-turquoise and half-yellow tunic with purple bows, the yellow half reserved with playing cards, and trousers with one blue and one red leg, his black shoes with yellow ribbons, on a raised and pierced ormolu base with rockwork, foliage and scrollwork, 20cm high (right arm and horns restuck, minor restoration)

The earliest reference to this model is in Kaendler's Arbeitsberichte (work notes) in October 1736, which describes a recumbent small dog next to the figure. Kaendler's Taxa of overtime work made between 1740 and 1748 records: '1 Arlequin, aufin Postament sitzend und einem Dudelsack in Händen habend, nebst einen Bass-Glass trinekend' [1 Harlequin seated on a pedestal and holding bagpipes in his hands, while drinking from a pass glass] (quoted by M. Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked (2001), no. 72, where the example in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, is published, along with other recorded examples.