Figural group - allegory of fire

Kändler created sculpturally decorated vessels with single figures and entire figural groups, as in the famous swan service. One of them is a group with a naked woman by the fire and a putto lighting a torch. It belongs to the group of figures with allegories of the four elements: Water, Fire, Earth and Air, which Kändler developed in 1747. Each model leaving the studio was numbered; this one has the number 836, which gives an idea of the production size. The figurines became very popular and in increasing demand, so the same designs were repeated years later, sometimes with changes (copyright, as we know it today, was not yet known). The item was made when Camillo Marcolini (1774-1814) headed the factory. In Kändler's model, the base is low, irregular, with grass and flowers, and the figures are multi-coloured painted. The later version, keeping with the spirit of the period, is snow-white on a base in the form of an oval pedestal with a decorative frieze all around.