Young Woman of Malabar figure

F. E. Meyer, Meissen, Germany, after 1748

Glazed porcelain.

H: 18 cm

Markings: swords in blue

UMP 16909

J. F. Eberlein modelled a couple, a man and a woman from Malabar (now Kerala, India), for the collection of Count von Brühl in 1746. Then in 1750, Madame Pompadour, a lover and innovator of Rococo porcelain, purchased the couple for her collection. After arriving in Meissen in 1748, Friedrich Eliass Meyer created a variation on the couple. Unlike Eberlein, Meyer designed the couple as singing musicians – the man with a lute and woman with a hurdy-gurdy.