Meissen "Day & Night" Porcelain Figurines
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GUEST:
These were purchased by my grandfather in the early 1970s at an auction in Little Rock, Arkansas. He paid $325 for the set. Always claimed that they were the best pieces in his collection. Nobody in the family ever believed him. Most of the family thought they were fairly ugly. Nobody wanted them. And I told my grandmother I would take them and I've had them ever since. That was in the mid-1980s.
APPRAISER:
So you've had them quite a while.
GUEST:
I've had them quite a while, yep. They used to sit up on a fairly high shelf, but they've been wrapped up and stored away. We have three children and two dogs and didn't really have any place safe to put them.
APPRAISER:
So what do you know about these? What do you think they are?
GUEST:
I don't know a lot about them. I know the mark that they have, I've looked it up. It seems to be a Meissen mark, but I haven't been able to find anything about these particular figures or anything. My grandfather and my dad always referred to them as sunrise and sunset.
APPRAISER:
First of all, you want to know if they're really Meissen or not.
GUEST:
Yes, I would, yeah.
APPRAISER:
And I've got to be honest with you. They're absolutely real. People get a little obsessed with the marks. Yes, there are lots of fake marks and a lot of things made in the style of Meissen, but if you get to know Meissen, you don't need to turn them over. It's all in the quality. You look in terms of the modeling and the detailing. Look at the movement of that drapery. It's so crisp and it really, really reflects what fabric might look like. There are certainly other good manufacturers, but very few in the world have ever made porcelain figurines as fine as Meissen has. And Meissen pretty much only worked in porcelain, so it's a very high grade of hard-paste porcelain which is what Meissen really innovated in the 18th century and what they're famous for. And Meissen is located in Germany near Dresden, and they're still producing there today. They have a traditional Meissen crossed swords mark. There are little dots at the ends of the handles of the swords.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
That particular mark is generally thought to have been used from about 1815 until about 1924, so these would date in that time period. You've said that you were calling them "Sunrise and Sunset." Actually, they're called "Day and Night."
GUEST:
Okay, close.
APPRAISER:
So you're pretty close. These are always called "Day and Night." That one, you can see, you've got sun rays coming out of his head like the sun, you've got fire, you've got sunflower representing the sun. You've got a bird as part of the daytime. Whereas at night, at the top we've got stars of night, we've got an owl, which is night. And then also the coloration of even their clothing. They both have a little bit of condition problems, and in Meissen that is somewhat acceptable.
GUEST:
Okay.
APPRAISER:
They could be restored. In terms of figurines these days, young collectors do not want figurines of little naked children.
GUEST:
Children, yeah.
APPRAISER:
However, these are an exception to the rule. In terms of value, a retail value of this pair in the condition that they're in would probably be somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000.
GUEST:
Okay. (laughing) My grandfather was very correct.
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