Porcelain figurine - Summer

The pioneer of fine porcelain art was the most eminent master modeller in the Meissen porcelain manufactory Johann Joachim Kändler (1706-1775), who in the 1730s, following the Rococo style, began to model small figurines with highly varied themes. They gained enormous popularity and the constantly growing demand caused the newly established porcelain manufactories to start producing them as well. The personification of Summer is a part of a set of figurines depicting the four seasons of the year. The set includes figures of two women representing Spring and Summer, and two men representing Autumn and Winter. They were designed by Friedrich Elias Meyer I (1723-1785) and made at the Royal Porcelain Manufactory in Berlin (KPM) between 1780 and 1800.

Meyer was the son of a sculptor - Matthias Mayer from Erfurt - and was trained in this profession from the age of fourteen. Thanks to his inborn ability he learned quickly and already at the age of eighteen he entered the service of Heinrich I von Schwarzburg-Sondershausen in 1741, who appointed him court sculptor. Soon after, he was appointed to the court of Duke Ernst August I in Weimar. The prince financed him two study trips for further education, to Berlin and Dresden. Thanks to the knowledge he gained, he took part in designing the new Baroque palace in Eisenach between 1746 and 1747. After the death of the duke, he was employed in the Meissen porcelain factory, where he designed sets of figurines. From there he moved to Berlin in 1761, where his talent and experience quickly raised the artistic level of relief decoration of dishes and figurines produced there.

Barbara Czajkowska