Friedrich August II. (Dresden 1696-1763), from 1733 King of Poland, on a tall pedestal, mounted on a courbetting horse with leopard skin saddle, a marshal's staff in the right hand, the reins held tight in the left. Depicted as a determined ruler in the gilt armour of a Roman emperor, gazing into the distance; porcelain, polychromed and gilt, the octagonal tiered base with narrow and wide gilt edging, both sides with sculpted crowns surmounted by the Polish-Lithuanian and Prince Elector of Saxony coat-of-arms, flanked by green laurel branches with gilt fruit and light turquoise palm branches, height: 54,5 cm, length: 54,5 cm, width: 30 cm, restorations
Meissen, underglaze blue crossed swords 2nd half 19th cent., model no. 948, former no, 143, green painter no. 69, after a model for the large equestrian statue of August III. by Johann Joachim Kändler ca. 1753 with an alteration of 1756 (Ru)

Lit.:
Porzellan Sammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, cat. 1988, p 166, 117, ill. In 1734, the same year the "Goldener Reiter” for the Neustadt Market was completed, Kändler presented August III. with a fantastic idea: His plan to model the King and his father, August the Strong, in the form of two life-sized porcelain statues.
Lit.:
E. Zimmermann, Meissner Porzellan, 1926, ill. plate 46, text p 175, 178, “This was probably occasioned by Kändler's 1745 equestrian statuette of the King, which pleased him particularly; be that as it may, in 1751, he received the commission by Brühl. To show his intentions he created a detailed model, whose 1743 porcelain version is still in the Dresden Collection … In November 1754, he was already in a position to consider the "large statuette" and requested the necessary measurements. In 1755 he had completed a 10m tall plater model". p 239.