The main figure of Acis sits next to a nereide on the back of a dolphin, embracing her, they gaze into one another’s eyes, to obverse and reverse, a Triton child sits, the figure to the front has his arms wrapped around the lower body of the nymph, the one at the back holds a water lily in its left hand, Acis holds the shaft of the lamp with its 4 branches and sockets in his left hand, the group sits above a shell-shaped dish, stepped base with waterfall in relief, 3 gilt scale volutes with gilt shells, 3 gilt sculptural cartouches with polychrome and gilt-painted coat-of-arms and indianisch branches in flower, to the obverse protected by a gilt umbrella, sockets and shell-shaped drip guards with fine and wide gilt rims, gilt borders and gilt-accented leaves, height 51 cm, repair to 1 branch, Meissen, underglaze blue sword mark, 1934-1960, model no. 3989, former no. 142, model by Johann Joachim Kändler and Johann Friedrich Eberlein, 1739, for Heinrich Count von Brühl (Ru)

Lit.: Schwanenservice, Meissener Porzellan für Heinrich Graf von Brühl, exh. cat. Dresden 2000, p. 39, ill. 26; p. 95, ill. 70, p. 166, ill. 40; the Kerchove family is an old Flemish aristocratic lineage, whose roots lie in the region between Yprès and Vlamertinge in Flanders. They are documented from the 14th century onwards. The name of the family comes from the place where they lived, that is, the square in front of the church, Kerc = church, hove = desmesne, which was generally the most central place in a medieval village. The family’s motto is ‘endurer pour durer’ – one must endure in order to persist over the long term – can be found on their coat-of-arms. To the centre of the coat-of-arms is a blue dove with a green olive twig in its beak. In the 18th century, the family split into three stems: the oldest: the barons of Exaerde; the middle stem: the lords of Denterghem, and the youngest: the lords of Ousselghem;