The great Meissen modeller J.J. Kaendler produced series of small figures representing street traders or artisans copying popular contemporary engravings showing ordinary working people. This lively and colourful figure of a spinstress or spinster, literally a woman who made her living spinning wool, is one of this type. She is not meant to show the harsh reality of working conditions of the time, but rather a prettified version to provide amusement and delight the wealthy members of the Saxon aristocracy.

It is recorded that figures of this type were sometimes placed in a group as a part of a decorative table setting. The tradition of placing figures on the table dates back to the medieval period, when they would actually have been made of sugar, marzipan or wax, not porcelain. It was the Meissen factory that first made table decorations in the more durable medium of porcelain in the 1730s. Porcelain figures made in series in the 1740s and 50s could, of course, also have been collected as delightful objets d'art in their own right, ones that illustrated the fashionable taste and prosperity of their owners.