This piece is modeled after a work created for the collection of German Elector-King Augustus the Strong (1670-1733); famous for his porcelain obsession and the palace he built to house it -- The Japanese Palace. After his own porcelain factory was opened at Meissen in 1710, Augustus became increasingly interested in the idea of Meissen surpassing Asian porcelain in quality. The culmination of this ambition was the incredible idea of a menagerie of life-size birds and animals made in porcelain. Menageries were an important component of displaying princely power, so perhaps it is not so surprising that a porcelain-crazed king should have commissioned a porcelain menagerie. Several of his palaces had animal enclosures, and when wild and exotic animals were displayed during pageants they were intended to astonish the crowds, but their display was also designed to demonstrate the king’s power over these magnificent creatures and thus his ability to bring order to the world.

The success of the project was dependent on the Modellmeister having not only the creativity, but also a deep understanding of the technical challenges that such an ambitious project would pose. The task was initially given to Gottlieb Kirchner, the first sculptor permanently employed by Meissen, joined shortly thereafter by sculptor Johann Joachim Kändler -- the modeler of this meticulous heron. Kändler appears to have been personally picked by Augustus to work in the porcelain works and he mastered porcelain sculpture rapidly. He is regarded today as one of the finest and probably the most influential of porcelain modelers in the 18th century. Both Kirchner and Kändler either studied their subjects from live beasts in the collection of the Mortizburg menagerie, the Dresden Löwenhaus, or sketched them from specimens in the Animaliengalerie at the Zwinger in Dresden.

The 1733 inventory lists 296 large animals and 297 large birds (more than 40 cm in height) in the Japanese Palace. Kändler's style is naturalistic, there is a great freedom of execution in his models probably developed from observations made from nature in the royal menagerie. This inventory indicated a number of variations to the heron model, including model number 51 (with the heron's head down) and model number 52 (with the heron's head up). This lot is model number 51, clutching a freshly plucked carp in its beak.

For a further examination of this model by Kändler, see Samuel Wittwer, The Gallery of Meissen Animals: Augustus the Strong’s Menagerie for the Japanese Palace in Dresden, Munich, 2006, pp. 198-202. See also Christie's Paris, 22 June 2005, lot 119.

The present model of a heron is one of three examples made at the Meissen factory 1996-1997. In order to be sure of fulfilling Henry Arnhold's request for one bird, three identical examples were made.  The Arnhold example was exhibited at The Frick Collection in Porcelain, No Simple Matter: Arlene Shechet and the Arnhold Collection, May 24, 2016 to April 2, 2017. The whereabouts of the third example is unknown.