A set of four figures of the Continents
Meissen Porcelain Factory
Category
Ceramics
Date
1745 - 1755
Materials
hard-paste porcelain, enamels, gold
Measurements
184.15 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Germany
Order this imageCollection
Wallington, Northumberland
NT 581962
Summary
Group of figures representing the four Continents, hard-paste porcelain, painted with enamel colours and gilded, modelled by Johann Joachim Kändler (1706-75) and Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1696-1749) for the Meissen porcelain factory, Germany, about 1750.
Full description
Porcelain made in the town of Meissen was the ceramic of choice amongst the English aristocracy and gentry in the second quarter of the 18th century. If not purchased in Europe, through members of the diplomatic corps or while on the Grand Tour, it could be bought in London. Although it was illegal to import foreign porcelain for resale in England until 1775, London ‘toymen’ – purveyors of luxury goods – found ways of circumventing the Custom House to fill their shops with fresh stock. In the 1740s, several toymen are known to have been frequent visitors to the manufactory’s warehouses in Dresden or at the Leipzig Messe, a semi-annual international trade fair. This set of Meissen porcelain sculptures representing the four Continents may have been acquired from one of those merchants by the international mining industrialist Sir Walter Calverley Blackett, 2nd Baronet (1707-77). Although intended as a themed centrepiece for the dessert table, in the tradition of ephemeral sugar sculpture, similar objects in England were often displayed above chimneypieces. For example, at Burghley House, Lincolnshire, a set of four large Meissen allegorical figures of the Senses, made in about 1750, was listed on a dressing room chimney in a 1763-77 day-book belonging to Brownlow Cecil, 9th Earl of Exeter (1725-93). The figures of the Continents are the work of the great porcelain sculptor Johann Joachim Kändler (1706-75) and Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1696-1749). As model-meister, Kändler produced almost 1,000 figural models for Meissen from the late 1730s until his death. In 1745 Empress Elizabeth of Russia commissioned a large unpainted set of the Continents (‘Das Theil der Welt’ or ‘The Parts of the World’). Kändler recorded the production of the models in his work reports in September and October, and he completed Europe the following year. However, a smaller set of the Continents, like these at Wallington may already have been in production. The iconography of the personifications of the Continents is taken with little alteration from Iconologia, an emblem book by Cesare Ripa (c.1560-1622) published in Rome in 1603. Europe (NT 581962.1), the tallest, mounted on a rearing white horse, is crowned and holds an orb and sceptre. Below are symbols of her perceived enlightenment and superiority – an architects’ tools, an open book with alchemical symbols and a globe with the names of the continents (alluding to Europe’s overseas territories). Asia (NT 581962.2), seated on a camel beside a palm, wears a luxurious Turkish costume; her bejewelled headdress has plumed aigrettes and a crescent moon finial, matching the sceptre she holds; in her other hand is an incense burner. Africa (NT 581962.3), resting on a lion, holds a sheaf of corn and a sceptre, and wears a dress and cloak along with an elephant’s mask headdress. America (NT 581962.4), reclining on a crocodile, wears a colourful feather skirt and headdress, and holds a parrot and cornucopia overflowing with flowers Adapted from Patricia Ferguson, 'Ceramics: 400 Years of Collecting', (National Trust, 2016), pp.84-85. Terminology note: These types of porcelain figures (particularly Africa and Asia) have historically, in sales and collection inventories, been referred to as ‘Blackamoor’ figures. The term ‘moor’ derives from the Greek work ‘mauros’ meaning ‘black’ or ‘very dark’ and, in the medieval and early modern periods, was an ill-defined stereotype applied to Muslims of the Islamic Iberian Peninsula and North Africa. Usage developed to conflate Muslims of any ethnicity with black Sub-Saharan Africans. People of colour were considered to reflect a luxury within European households, where many were enslaved or employed, although often unpaid, as domestic staff.
Credit line
The Trevelyan Collection, Wallington
Marks and inscriptions
Europe modelled by Kaendler/Exempt from death duties 1928 (in pencil)
Makers and roles
Meissen Porcelain Factory, manufacturer Johann Joachim Kändler (Germany 1706 - Meissen 1775) , maker J. F. Eberlein, maker