Posted 9 years ago
mikelv85
(1232 items)
I found these little beauties at Savers a few days ago. My old camera didn't like Windows 10 , which by the way is awesome. So I used my android phone. No problems now. I'm thinking it's Meissen or at least German. The quality is there in the painting and detail but nothing specific marked on the bottom. A tiny faint embossed number in the center obscured by an old price mark. It's either "117" or "711". At first I thought it might be part of something bigger but I checked online and there are similar stand alone pieces. Each little guy is holding something different. Mostly war related. A shield, a dagger, a bow and arrow. One is blowing horn. Another has a ball or fruit in his hand. It's quite a mix. The porcelain is very hard and rings like a bell. Not a speck of damage to all those tiny little fingers and toes. The archer was missing his bow. His finely detailed fingers curled over something either a wood or metal bow at one time. There are no remnants that anything was broken off. I fashioned him one from toothpick wood and it fit right between his fingers. The other hand is pulling the string so maybe I'll add a piece of gold thread to replace the missing bow string. -Mike-
Almost looks like it was meant to be spun. Great find.
Thanks Caperkid....hmm that's a possibility...a music box maybe ??
Thanks Ken :) As far as 10, go for it.... It's great and I had no problems. I'm running it on a 6 year old Dell computer from Salvation that I upgraded from XP to 7. It just needed a hard drive and a video card. However the Nvidia card I installed needed the 10 driver update which they did within 24hrs.of it's release. Once I got that I installed it . Took about 45-60 mins. No problems at all. Kind of like driving a new car. Takes a day or two to feel comfortable with it. So glad they ditched Explorer too. Their Edge browser is great although I still like Firefox. Still waiting for it to be ready for my laptop as they are introducing it in waves. So far so good . Even the reviews have been great up to this point. It's really what 8 and 7 should have been. -Mike-
Thanks for sharing your porcelain, Mike, great find, and thanks for the information re 10, I've been getting invites on my lappy for a while, but wanted to see what actual people thought of it before installing it. Got burnt with 8, and when I say got burnt I mean think the worst like suicidal thoughts, lol. I hoped they would do better with 10, good to know they did.
Thanks Katherine :)...yes I know it's scary I never had 8 and frankly I used XP up until last year when the support ran out. I have a laptop with 7 and I can't wait to ditch it now that the desktop past the test. It's reserved but hasn't come through yet. Just make sure all your updates are current and install it from the update screen. It will show it as a 2,700 and something MB download and it goes smoothly from there. It even tells you to sit back and relax during the install...lol Easy !
Though it is difficult to appreciate it from the computer the little sculpture does not seem to have the characteristc glossy of Meissen pieces, I had never seen that sort of shells in the base, perhaps you can search for this, usually the base is characteristic of a mark. Here I found one with the Volksted mark
http://www.ebay.com/itm/VOLKSTEDT-CHERUB-PUTTI-GROUP-FIGURINE-AELTESTE-VOLKSTEDTER-EXCELLENT-CONDITION-/400951362383
perhaps yours is not marked because it does not achieve the standards fixed by the company in the enamel or because it was done during the first WW or immediately after
Thanks so much kivatinitz for the info and link :)..... I can't deny the ebay one is almost spot on in composition but the the thick shiny glaze and the quality of the painting is no where near the quality of mine. I'm thinking mine could be an earlier version as you mentioned. The number on the bottom is definitely "711" though. The one on ebay says it's date marked to 1945 or newer. I'll research Volkstedt a bit more and see what I can find out. -Mike-
Great figurine Mike, I agree Windows 10 is awesome, but taking me a little to get use to, I had to fuddle around with the "Photo" app for several attempts, before getting the hang of changes from 8.1. still having issue with copy and paste to new folders. but sure won't be long...lol
Thanks Kerry it is a nice piece :)... I agree about 10. Some of the control panels and items I'm familiar with from 7 are now well hidden and take a bit of searching for, but I'm getting the hang of it too. Probably the smoothest install I've every done. My laptop reservation isn't ready yet. I know you can force it to update but I think I'll be patient just in case there are problems. So far no complaints with my desktop though :) -Mike-
I have slight advantage...never used 7.....went from Vista to * and upgraded to 8.1 with in a week, so lots of similarities, but lots of things need to explore lol
one issue I didn't care for....had to force sync external hard drive, wouldn't plug-n-play
I see free upload popping up on my 8.1 for 10,.... thinking its still beta...lol will wait till all the patches are done be for playing with 10...smiling..
does look like it came off a music box..but coollllllllllllll
http://www.porcelainsite.com/porcelain/marks/volkstedt_2.shtml
Aelteste Volkstedter Porzellanfabrik AG (1900 - 1936)