How many come up for sale each year?

Around 27 pieces reach this market in a year on Sellingantiques, carried by some 37 different dealers. That spread means the category sits across many hands rather than with a few specialists, and what appears in any given month varies.

Are figures more common than tea wares?

Yes. Figures, figurines and groups account for roughly half the category, with 'group' alone in 31 titles and 'figure' in 24. Tablewares and cabinet pieces make up about a quarter: bowls and saucers lead, with teapots, coffee pots, sucriers, dishes, candelabra and baskets behind them.

What dates do listings cover?

The recorded dates run from 1750 to 1960, though titles push the earliest wares back to tea bowls and saucers described as around 1730. The 19th century dominates, covering 78 dated listings against 45 for the 18th. Decade buckets behind them are thin, and a leopard attacking a snake, filed to 1960, is the latest thing recorded.

Why do some listings say Meissen style?

The crossed-swords mark was copied more than any other in ceramics, so porcelain made in Meissen's manner has always circulated alongside the factory's own. Roughly one listing in eight is titled 'Meissen Style' or 'after Meissen', or names another factory outright, among them Sitzendorf, Helena Wolfsohn, Dresden, Samson and Volkstedt.

Which subjects turn up again and again?

Putti, dancers, musicians, shepherdesses, grape harvesters and Cris de Paris street traders are the steady figural repertoire, along with the monkey band. Among birds and animals, parrots, cockatoos and hoopoes recur, one perched parrot standing 43cm. Oddities appear once and not again: nodding pagoda figures as a 17cm pair, and the tailor riding a goat.

Do complete sets of figures appear?

Matched pairs are common, with 'pair' in 38 titles, close to a fifth of them. Complete allegorical sets are much scarcer. The Four Seasons as a full set of four appears twice, and those two are the only complete sets of the kind recorded.

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Antique Meissen

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Hard-paste porcelain from the Saxon manufactory at Meissen, made for the table and the cabinet, and above all modelled into small painted figures and groups.