porcelain, two items, cover and baluster, cover with two seated robins on green foliate branches with four arrow-wood flowers, baluster with large yellow oreole and colourful bird, sitting on green foliate branches with 19 arrow-wood flowers, bird cage with openwork grid, sitting inside that one small yellow bird, outside green foliate branches with single flowers and four arrow-wood flowers, plinth with green foliate branches and four arrow-wood flowers, porcelain, colour painted, vase height 60 cm, cover height 24 cm, total height 83 cm, minor restorations, Meißen, underglaze blue sword mark, second half of the nineteenth century, model number 2773, model by Johann Joachim Kändler around 1760 (Ru)

These vases are developed following a model by Johann Joachim Kändler. He modelled a vase series for King Ludwig XV in 1741 and 1742.

See Lit.:
: Ernst Zimmermann, Meissner Porzellan, 1926, p. IX, Dresden, Staatliche Porzellansammlung; plate 43, 'große Schneeballvase für König Ludwig XV'; p. 172, above the relief image of King Ludwig XV framed by a laurel wreath.... p. 173.. 'indem man das Ganze mit den in der vorhergehenden Periode aufgekommenen Schneeblüten über und über belegte',
See Lit.:
: Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Porzellan Sammlung, Führer durch die ständige Ausstellung im Dresdner Zwinger, 1998, p 162, fig. Two birdcage vases, height 53 cm, Meissen around 1727, unmarked, Johanneum no. 'N=366w'; Birdcage vases were created in Meißen as soon as 1727. 'In the course of numerous replicas of East Asian porcelain from the collection of August the Strong, more complicated forms were also created in Meissen, including what was known as bird cage vases following the Japanese model. The goblet shape opened like a chalice and had a fine gilded metal rod cage at the centre around the vase body. Aviaries and menageries

Manufaktur Inspektor Johann David Reinhard announced the successful creation of two vases in 1727. They were delivered as decorative items to the Japanese Palais. Another fifty of them were then created for the Porzellanschloss.'
See Lit..:
: Triumph der blauen Schwerter, Meissener Porzellan für Adel und Bürgertum 1710-1815, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, 2010: p 23 figures, one birdcage vase around 1680 Arita, Japan, one birdcage vase around 1727 Meissen, Staatl. Kunstsammlungen Dresden; p 136, fig. 1: arrow-wood flower vase with birds around, Schloss Lustheim, Bavarian National Museum'; p 347 fig. 411, two arrow-wood vases from a centrepiece with vases, one vase with cover height 69 cm, unmarked, around 1760 and one vase without cover height 58 cm, underglaze blue sword mark around 1742, both models by Johann Joachim Kändler, Stiftung Preußische Schlösser und Gärten Berlin-Brandenburg, Potsdam; 'Inspired by Chinese porcelain, Kändler first applied small flowers that recalled arrow-wood flowers to the entire surface of a coffee and tea service. In 1741/1742, more flower shapes were added, they may have been used to cover vases with cover bearing the portraits of Ludwig XV and August III, which are now in the porcelain collection (Zimmermann 1926, plate 43). Large vases were mentioned in the inventory of Friedrich the Great from December 1745 as "1 Camin Aufsatz größte Sorte Schneeball Blüten".' These types of vases appear as if they were materially dissolving, especially at candlelight, and the plastic applications of further flowers and colour painted birds give them a hitherto unknown naturalistic effect. Arrowwood vases were very expensive and therefore are only found at significant Royal courts and the Tsar's court as well as ruling houses in Germany. Friedrich the Great had a particular liking for them and ordered numerous centrepieces for furnishing the Neuer Palais in Potsdam in 1762, especially for the blue chamber and his apartment there. The vases were placed on consoles between wall panels, others were placed on fireplaces.
See Lit..:
: Jean Louis Sponsel, Kabinettstücke der Meissner Porzellan-Manufaktur von Johann Joachim Kändler, Leipzig 1900, p. 144, Schneeball-Vasen mit dem Brustbild August III.;
See Lit..:
: Bergmann 1-3000, p. 711, cat. no. 2583;