Extensive collection of the 22-piece Meissen monkey chapel; 21 standing and seated figures of a bandmaster with music stand, fiddler, bass fiddler, clarinettist, bagpiper, bassoon player and triangle player on a rocaille base in relief. figures of a bandmaster with music stand, flautist, violinist, bass violinist, clarinettist, bagpiper, bassoon player, triangle player, guitarist, drummer, timpani player, trumpeter, French horn player, a harpist, hurdy-gurdy player, two piano players and three female singers. Polychrome painting with gold staffage. Designed by Johann Joachim Kaendler and Peter Reinicke. Clarinettist, bagpiper and piano player, mid 18th century; Partially restored; Minimally dam.; Centreboard mark. H. 9 cm - 18 cm. As early as 1753, Kaendler designed an ensemble of monkey figures making music in colourful clothing with an affected expression, as it is said, for Madame de Pompadour, which he reworked in collaboration with Peter Reinicke around 1765/66. Depictions of animals with human characteristics and behaviour enjoyed great popularity in the 18th century, not least because of the great interest in fable poems, especially in the so-called "Singeries" by French artists, which showed curious, scenic depictions of monkeys acting humanly in various situations. Cf. Rückert, cat. Bayer. Nationalmuseum, p. 192, Sonntag, Affenkapelle aus Meissener Porzellan, p. 29ff. A large 22-piece collection of porcelain figures from the "monkey orchestra" modelled by J. J. Kaendler and P. Reinicke. Three monkeys mid 18th century. Partly restored. Minor chipped. Crossed swords mark. Meissen. 19th century.