Du Paquier cup and saucer, pained with cupids à la Elias Baeck
Du Paquier c. 1730/35. Cup: 4.4 cm high; Ø 7.0 cm; saucer: Ø 12.6 cm
Cup and saucer are painted with putti representing the seasons. On the cup we see autumn - a putto carrying the harvest (grapes and apples) home in a basket - and winter - a putto with the symbols of death: Scythe and skull. The saucer shows spring - a putto sowing seeds in a freshly ploughed field.
The motif of putti with an allegorical or symbolic function was popular in Du Paquier (see Ghenete Zelleke in Fired by Passion I p. 388 ff. with further examples). Zelleke depicts a tulip vase (loc. Cit. and cat. no. 416) painted with putti in purple camaieu also symbolising the seasons of summer and also spring (same motif as ours). The patterns are by Elias Baeck (1679-1747), published by Albrecht Schmidt, Augsburg.
Motifs with putti were also very popular in Meissen, at Höroldt's beginnings, as shown by a number of early pieces, e.g.: Christies 12.12.2002 No. 1, KPF sugar bowl, 1722/23; Sotheby's 21.10.1980 no. 50, KPF sugar bowl; APC Sotheby's New York 10-11.10.2006 No. 266, Kumme without mark.