Single Figurine Mouse with crown

With his original "Mouse King" figure, Meissen artist Maximilian Hagstotz reinterprets the character from E. T. A. Hoffmann's story The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. Instead of being frightening and powerful, this Mouse King appears as a small rodent in an abstract, reduced form-charming, gentle, and almost a little shy.

His small crown is discreet - a symbol of royal dignity, but without any severity. The Mouse King seems more cute than threatening, more approachable than domineering. A figure who does not want to fight, but simply wants to belong. Even a king longs for affection.

The golden staffage is particularly meaningful: a clef and the time signatures 2/4 and 6/8 symbolize the musical origins of the figure - a subtle reference to Tchaikovsky's world-famous ballet. While the 2/4 time signature can stand for march and order, the 6/8 time signature brings a dance-like, playful lightness to the picture - a musical reference to the ambivalence of the figure: between seriousness and lightness, classical origins and modern reinterpretation.

Handcrafted from the finest Meissen porcelain, the "Mouse King" represents a new kind of storytelling: quiet, loving, and with a touch of irony. A collector's item made of Meissen porcelain that elegantly blurs the boundaries between classic and contemporary - and shows that even a king just wants to be loved sometimes.