The ‘Welsh or Welch Taylor (or Tailor) riding a goat’ and ‘His Wife’
These amusing and intricate figures are adapted from Meissen originals, a ‘Tailor astride a goat’ and ‘His wife’, modelled in 1737-1740 by Johann Joachim Kändler (1706-1775) and Johann Friedrich Eberlein (1695-1749). According to the legend, the tailor asked his client, Count Heinrich von Brühl (1700-1763), Director of the Meissen factory for an invitation to dine at the Royal Palace. Brühl was so affronted by such audacity that he commissioned the porcelain figure to set at the table, in his place, and thereby fulfilled the request. The Tailor soon acquired a wife, modelled by Eberlein.
Widely copied by many porcelain factories, the fame of the Tailor and his wife persisted into the 19th century. Shown at the 1851 Great Exhibition, John Tallis’s History and Description of the Crystal Palace observed: ‘The grotesque figures and groups of Dresden porcelain have always been admired for their execution… One of the grotesque pieces which obtained most celebrity, and was familiar to all amateurs, was the famous tailor of the Count de Bruhl, a figure which was remarkable for the difficulty of its execution, owing to the numerous accessories it included’.
The Derby figures included numerous accessories. Note the pair of scissors attached to the Taylor’s coat. The goat holds a flat iron in its mouth. In the basket on his back are two kids. The name of the Derby figure does not refer to Welsh nationality but rather a misunderstanding of the original German title Ein Schneider welcher auf einem Ziegenbock reutet (A Tailor which rides a goat)!
