Limited Masterworks 2014 Clock Saxony

Fama, goddess of fame, hovers triumphantly above time and everything that Frederick Augustus II (1696-1763) sought to represent as Prince Elector of Saxony, King of Poland and Grand-Duke of Lithuania. Domination and justice are symbolised on the Baroque table clock by a woman holding a sceptre and the goddess Justitia positioned alongside the electoral crest. Fertility and affluence gush out of the cornucopia of virility onto the Saxon arms from the other side. Above, two cherubs romp about armed with the Book of Science and the Sword of Defensive Capability. Two others are bent over the Saxon elector's crown clasping the imperial orb. Johann Joachim Kaendler (1706-1775), Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1665-1749) and Johann Gottlieb Ehder created the model for Saxony's great patron of the arts at MEISSEN^® in 1744 - during a period in which they were frequently contracted to produce allegorical figures and elaborate mythological scenes. Politically speaking, the Prince Elector may not have garnered quite as much fame and glory as the porcelain figures would appear to suggest given Saxony's embroilment in the Seven Years' War waged from 1756 to 1763. The practice of employing the gods of Classical Antiquity to symbolise various abilities and virtues is nevertheless typical of how the aristocracy was portrayed - and of how it saw itself - during the Baroque Age. In instilling so much motion into their allegorical figures and arranging them in such dynamic manner around the clock's gilded works, the porcelain artists at MEISSEN^® have fashioned a particularly accomplished and precious piece.