Meissen Crinoline Group 'La Tasse de Chocolat', circa 1740

A Meissen Crinoline group of 'La Tasse de Chocolat', circa 1740, modelled by J. J. Kandler, the lady seated with a pug-dog on her lap on a chair with a high pierced back, a servant holding a tazza with a chocolate cup beside her and a tripod table on her left with a chocolate pot, chocolate cup and saucer, sugar bowl and snuff box, on a shaped mound base applied with flowers and foliage, underglaze blue crossed swords mark to base. Height 15 cm. Provenance: Private Collection, Avenue Montaigne, Paris, c.1890-1930, Christies, London, 'Centuries of style: silver, European ceramics, portrait miniatures and gold Boxes', 1-2 December 2015, lot 44, the Robert Compton Jones collection, Sydney. Other notes: this group is recorded in Kandler's Taxa of April-June 1737 and exists with a number of variations to the figural composition. The group was inspired by an engraving by Laurent cars after Boucher depicting a scene from Moliere's comedy 'Le Sicilien ou l'Amour peintre'. A similar group with a table and chocolate-service is illustrated by Dr. Erika Pauls-Eisenbeiss, German porcelain of the Eighteenth century, Vol. I, 1972, pp. 194-195 and another is illustrated by Stefan Bursche, Meissen, Steinzeug und Porzellan des 18. Jahrhunderts Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin, Berlin, 1980, p. 297, cat no. 306. A variant of this model with a kneeling cavalier, from the same collection as the present lot, was sold at Christie's on 2 June 2015, lot 28 and another group with the table on 21 November 2005, lot 91.