Four Antique Porcelain Figurines

The first is in the manner of Meissen, a girl carrying a lamb, (6.75in.) (chip to hat; loss of lamb's foot; girl's head re-glued); two 19th century French faience figures of hunchback dwarves (3.5 in.) after Jacques Callot (allover crazing lines; both dwarves with broken walking sticks and arms holding them re-glued); the fourth figurine depicts a boy holding a mask, faint underside mark probably Volkstedt (break and re-glue to hand).
This are figurines produced in France in the 19th century, modeled after engravings by Jacques Callot (1592-1635). The engravings, printed in 1622, show a troupe of grotesque dwarf entertainers known as Les Gobbi, who performed in Italy for the Medici Court while Callot was working there. Dwarfs would have been regarded as amusing, and a troupe that sang and danced would have been a great novelty in the 17th century.


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