A Pair of Meissen Porcelain Candleholders

In Bronze Doré, two-light, and each mod­elled with fine­ly elab­o­rat­ed porce­lain fig­urines, one with a stu­dent, the sec­ond with the teacher and beau­ti­ful blos­soms in the gilt bronze branch­es ter­mi­nat­ing in two noz­zles and leaf shaped drip­ping pans.

The col­or­ful­ly dressed stu­dent with hat in vis­i­ble exhaus­tion, his book in hands, loose­ly tied to his lit­tle chair, his toys and a small dog under­neath (mod­el no. F. 49./45/36/W. under­glaze blue swords mark); the teacher, an ele­gant­ly styled lady in a beau­ti­ful dress lean­ing toward the stu­dent, sit­ting on an mag­nif­i­cent stool with flower bou­quet under­neath, pro­tect­ing her book with her hand from the student’s gaze (mod­el no. F. 51./56/36 under­glaze blue swords mark).

Michel Vic­tor Aci­er (born Jan­u­ary 20, 1736 in Ver­sailles near Paris, † Feb­ru­ary 16, 1799 in Dres­den): French-Ger­man porce­lain mod­el­er and sculp­tor, trained at the Académie Royale in Paris. In 1762 he was invit­ed to the porce­lain man­u­fac­to­ry in Meis­sen, where he worked with J. J. Kaendler. After Kendler’s death in 1775, Aci­er was respon­si­ble for the artis­tic design in the porce­lain fac­to­ry and is con­sid­ered to be a pio­neer of clas­si­cism in Meis­sen. On behalf of King Friedrich II, he made à bas-relief in 1783 with a rep­re­sen­ta­tion of the fall­en Count of Schw­erin. He was an hon­orary mem­ber of the Berlin Art Acad­e­my, and in 1780 an hon­orary mem­ber of the Dres­den Art Acad­e­my. From this point on, Aci­er also worked as a roy­al Sax­on mod­el­ing mas­ter in Dresden.