A RUSSIAN PORCELAIN FIGURE OF A GLAZIER, GARDNER PORCELAIN MANUFACTORY, 1830s-1840s
wearing a white apron, tall boots, blue striped trousers and top hat, his coat originally white but later overpainted in blue, holding a wooden frame with sheets of glass in one hand and a ball of putty under his other arm, naturalistic base with gilt rim, with impressed factory mark, St. George and the number 8 and inscribed Nr.2/10,
18.5cm
Provenance: Phillips, Bond Street, 18 September 1996, lot 123A
Gardner first introduced the Glazier model in the 1820s, perhaps as an addition to the popular street vendors from the Volshebnyi fonar (Magic Lantern) series. Although more commonly seen with a blue enamelled coat, the figure was also produced in a variety of colour-ways, such as a black coat (see Sotheby's, London, 26 May 2004, lot 361) or buff coat and trousers (see Sotheby's, New York, 12 April 2011, lot 378). For further comparable figures, see E. Ivanova, The Gardner Factory: Porcelain in Russia, 18th-19th Centuries, St. Petersburg, 2003, p.104.