Bonhams
Lot 7
An extremely rare Vienna model of an elephant, circa 1750In the white, naturalistically modelled standing with outstretched trunk and long tusks, 23cm high; 49.5cm across; shield mark in underglaze-blue, red-painted MAK inventory number Ke 7523.28975 (one toe chipped, smaller chips to toes, small chip to left ear)Footnotes:Provenance:Heinrich Rothberger Collection, Vienna (by 1902);Confiscated by the Vienna municipal authorities in November 1938;Acquired by the Staatliches Kunstgewerbemuseum (later Museum für angewandte Kunst), Vienna, in May 1939 (inv. no. Ke7523);Restituted to Heinrich Rothberger's niece, Mrs Bertha Gutmann, in 2003;Thence by descentLiterature:E.W. Braun, Altwiener Porzellan..., in Kunst und Kunsthandwerk VII (1904), ill. p. 222;W. Mrazek/W. Neuwirth, Wiener Porzellan 1718-1864 (n.d. - 1970), no. 333;C. Gschiel/U. Nimeth/L. Weidinger (eds.), Schneidern und Sammeln. Die Wiener Famile Rothberger, Schriftenreihe der Kommission für Provenienzforschung, vol. 2 (2010), pp. 108-112 (illustrated)Exhibited:Vienna 1904, Ausstellung von Alt-Wiener Porzellan, K.K. Oesterr. Museum für Kunst und Industrie, no. 659This is the only recorded example of this model. A different large model of an elephant was produced about ten years earlier by the Du Paquier manufactory of which only two examples are known: one forms part of an elaborate silver-mounted centrepiece probably given in 1740 to the Russian Empress Anna Ivanova and now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (M. Chilton/C. Lehner-Jobst, Fired by Passion (2009), cat. no. 148); and the second, unpainted example is in the Sullivan Collection (Chilton/Lehner-Jobst, cat. no. 149).This lot is subject to the following lot symbols: ** VAT on imported items at a preferential rate of 5% on Hammer Price and the prevailing rate on Buyer's Premium.For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com
