Kaffeegruppe thumbnail 1
On display
Image of Gallery in South Kensington

Kaffeegruppe

Figure Group
ca. 1770 (made)
Artist/Maker
Place of origin

This sculptural porcelain group depicts a couple in Turkish dress taking coffee while reclining at the base of a towering pedestal made up of scrolls. The informal and rather risqué pose of the figures captures the lure of the East (or their imagined view of it) for wealthy Europeans in the eighteenth century. The fashion for coffee drinking, which had spread to western Europe from Turkey in the seventeenth century, was in itself, viewed as a fashionable and stylish pastime. Turkish-style fantasies, known by the French term 'turqueries', were popular throughout the eighteenth century, although perhaps are less well-known today than their Chinese counterparts, 'chinoiseries'.

The modeller, Peter Anton Seefried, assembled this group using models originally created by the sculptor Franz Anton Bustelli, who worked at the Nymphenburg porcelain factory from 1754 until his death in 1763. Bustelli's work included many amorous figures and groups modelled in elaborate poses with fine attention to the details of their dress and gestures, usually set on bases with extravagant scrolled ornament or 'rocaille'. For many, Bustelli's models epitomise the Rococo style in European porcelain figures of the 18th century.

Object details

Categories
Object type
TitleKaffeegruppe
Materials and techniques
Hard-paste porcelain, glazed
Brief description
Group of lovers in Turkish dress drinking coffee, modelled by P. Seefried after F.A. Bustelli, hard-paste porcelain; Germany Nymphenburg, about 1770.
Physical description
Figure group of lovers in Turqueries drinking coffee, of hard-paste porcelain.
Dimensions
  • Height: 22.9cm
  • Width: 23cm
  • Depth: 19.5cm
Gallery label
(09/12/2015)
Table centrepiece with figures in Turkish dress
About 1770

Europeans associated people of the East with sensuality. This couple are shown in informal and risqué poses reclining at the base of a pedestal made up of Rococo scrolls. They are drinking coffee, which was fashionable in Europe from the late 17th century. Imported from the Ottoman Empire, coffee became connected in the European imagination with Turkey.

Germany (Munich)
Made at the Nymphenburg factory
Modelled by Peter Anton Seefried after Franz Anton Bustelli
Porcelain
Subjects depicted
Summary
This sculptural porcelain group depicts a couple in Turkish dress taking coffee while reclining at the base of a towering pedestal made up of scrolls. The informal and rather risqué pose of the figures captures the lure of the East (or their imagined view of it) for wealthy Europeans in the eighteenth century. The fashion for coffee drinking, which had spread to western Europe from Turkey in the seventeenth century, was in itself, viewed as a fashionable and stylish pastime. Turkish-style fantasies, known by the French term 'turqueries', were popular throughout the eighteenth century, although perhaps are less well-known today than their Chinese counterparts, 'chinoiseries'.

The modeller, Peter Anton Seefried, assembled this group using models originally created by the sculptor Franz Anton Bustelli, who worked at the Nymphenburg porcelain factory from 1754 until his death in 1763. Bustelli's work included many amorous figures and groups modelled in elaborate poses with fine attention to the details of their dress and gestures, usually set on bases with extravagant scrolled ornament or 'rocaille'. For many, Bustelli's models epitomise the Rococo style in European porcelain figures of the 18th century.
Bibliographic references
  • Katharina Hantschmann and Alfred Ziffer, Franz Anton Bustelli: Nymphenburger Porzellanfiguren des Rokoko, 2005, cat. 253, where another version of this model is attributed to Seefried after Bustelli and dated to ca. 1770
  • Alfred Ziffer, Nymphenburger Porzellan: Sammlungen Bauml, 1997, cat. 125, where another version of this model is attributed to Seefried after Bustelli and dated to ca. 1765
Collection
Accession number
CIRC.287-1922

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Record createdJune 24, 2009
Record URL
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