Parakeet on Dish 11 cm

As well as rendering to perfection the creatures' beauty, strength and agility, these artists also shed light on the enigmatic nature of their souls, as manifested in each of the porcelain beings produced. Paul Walther's "Parakeet on Dish", a small tray on which to deposit trinkets or nibbles surmounted by a sculptured animal in gentle colours, is a worthy representative of the great Meissen animal statuary tradition. Couched in a style characteristic of the earliest examples of art deco at Meissen, this piece, as functional as it is ornamental, embodies "decorative art" in its purest and most beautiful form.