51. A Meissen figure of Avvocato or a masquerader from the Dresden Court Pantry, circa 1745-50 Modelled by J.J. Kaendler, wearing a black tricorn hat, gilt-edged white robes with blue bows and purple ribbons at the neck and cuffs, a yellow waistcoat and black breeches, 15.5cm high, crossed swords mark in underglaze-blue to rear of base, K.H.C. in black (right hand restored, minor restoration) Provenance: Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection, sold Sotheby Parke Bernet, New York, 11 April 1980, lot 190 The Dresden court pantry was responsible for the decoration of the dessert table as well as for the dessert course itself, while the court kitchen was responsible for the three savoury courses, the court cellar for beverages and associated vessels, and the silver vault for silver and gold tablewares as well as some porcelain. The earliest Meissen figures for table decoration noted in the work reports appear from 1735, though these were commissioned by Counts Sulkowski and Brühl, rather than for the table of Augustus III. The first figures commissioned for the Elector's table were for the three royal marriages in 1747 and delivered to the court pantry between 1746-48. The Dresden court pantry inventories record 320 polychrome and 1065 undecorated figures and groups by 1748; in the inventory of 1752-64 lists around 1000 enamelled figures as well as twice as many undecorated (M. Cassidy-Geiger, "Meissen Porcelain Figures in the Royal Court Pantries in Dresden, Warsaw and Hubertusburg: a Crash Course in the Hof-Conditorei inventories taken ahead of the Seven Years War," in Art Antiques London (2015): 84-91).