porcelain, white, glazed, on a tree trunk sits a life-size vulture, clinging to the branches and holding a dead cockatoo in its claws, some claws piercing into its prey’s open wings and clutching its neck, sculptural leaves and plumage, entrails and liver hang out of the vulture’s beak, its neck and back feathers are raised in excitement, tree trunk on both sides with sculptural ears of corn, sprigs of leaves, mushrooms and nodules, height 80 cm, width 45 cm, 1 cockatoo claw and 1 sprig of leaves chipped, 3 delicate hairline cracks, 2 short firing cracks
Meissen, underglaze blue crossed swords mark and dated 1921 on base back, model by Johann Joachim Kändler, September 1734 (Ru)

Lit.:
Samuel Wittwer, Die Galerie der Meißener Tiere, Die Menagerie Augusts des Starken für das Japanische Palais in Dresden, vol. I, vulture with cockatoo as cover illustration: p. 166, Form und Wirkung der Tierplastiken, Das Schloß und die Tiere: Inhalt und Wirkung, ill. 154, 155; Johann Joachim Kändler created this model in September 1734, after observing a real-life scene in the Moritzburg menagerie; model revival, Karl Stein, March-August 1915, supplemented, form no. 123; p. 321, the model of the vulture exists in two versions, the detailed form described by Kändler in his work report, featuring a cockatoo in its claws, and another version without cockatoo. The sources do not distinguish between the two aforementioned variants. Historical appellation: “indianische Gayren”, Latin name: “Gyps Fulvus”; Lit.: The work reports of the Meissen porcelain modeller Johann Joachim Kändler 1706-1775, p 27, September 1734, 5th "Another bird of quite size, Nahmen's Kackedu, has a special bonnet grown by nature on his head Wes Wegen er very well-behaved to look at and rests on a pedestal overgrown with branches and leaves" Lit: Bergmann, animals, p. 284, cat. no. 3807;