PAIR OF HORSES IN PORCELAIN MANUFACTURE SAMSON

Two porcelain horses on clouds, mounted on Rocaille bases richly decorated with scrolls and openwork foliage. A firing defect inside the leg of one of the horses. Crossed swords in blue under the base. This famous Samson trademark was registered in 1927 for porcelain imitating Saxon pieces. An identical model can be found in the Chimchirian Collection (photo above).

20th century, Circa: 1930

Dim: W:17cm, D:13cm, H:18cm.

Meissen represented for 18th-century Germany what Sèvres embodied in France at the same time: the quintessence of taste. Few factories have been so copied, in terms of shapes, decorations and marks. In the 19th century, a number of small factories set up in the Dresden region with the intention of producing "Meissen". Like Carl Thieme's house in Potschappel or Achille Bloch's in France, Samson reproduced Meissen shapes and decors extensively. Between 1873 and 1927, he also registered a number of trademarks imitating those of Meissen, including several variants of the famous swords. Meissen created an impressive bestiary that greatly inspired Samson. From photographs preserved at the Manufacture de Sèvres, we know that he reproduced all kinds of animals, from the little Bolognese dog to the rhinoceros, from the horse to the elephant. The two original Meissen horses, like Samson's, were sold alone or harnessed to the chariots of divinities. This model was also reproduced by Achille Bloch.

Bibliography: Florence Slitine, "Samson, génie de l'imitation", Paris, Edition Charles Massin, 2002, reprod. p. 146.