Kändler's Taxa of March 1741 records: Einem grossen Elephanten; and Reinicke's of November 1743 mentions: 1 Elephanten 9 Zoll hoch mit einer verzeiten Decke uberhanged, in Thon bossirt. Sheet 18 of his Schulz Codex sketchbook shows an elephant which is very similar in feel to the present model.
A similar example is illustrated by Carl Albiker, Die Meissner Porzellantiere im 18. Jahrhundert, Berlin, 1959, no. 255. Two models are in the Ansbach Residenz, see Rainer Rückert, Meissener Porzellan 1710-1810, Munich, 1966, pl. 263, nos. 1060 and 1061. A version of this model and its corresponding group, a Sultan on a rhinoceros, from the Collection of S.B. Joel, was sold by Christie's on 29 May 1935, lot 33. Another pair mounted on ormolu from The William S. Paley Collection were sold by Christie's in New York on 21 October 2004, lot 1236.