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Allach white porcelain figurine of a medieval costumed dancer

Object | Accession Number: 2006.468.1

Allach porcelain jester figurine acquired by Adelia W. and Davis O. Morris when they lived in Munich, Germany, as part of the US Army occupation force from 1950-1953. One evening, a man came to their door with the figurine, offering it in trade. He gave it to the Morris's in exchange for a bag of coffee. This is model three of five figures in the Jester series, known as Zaddelrock or Moriskentanzer III, the Astute, produced in 1941. Allach Porcelain and the artist Richard Förster were commissioned by the city of Munich in 1937 to reproduce scaled-down figures of a 1480 Gothic sculpture created by Erasmus Grasser for the Dance House in Munich. The Moriskens were never for public sale, but were made exclusively for the city of Munich as gifts for visiting dignitaries. The city paid Allach 20 Reich Marks for each completed Morisken. Five of the ten figures were put into production. The Allach Porcelain Factory was taken over by the SS in 1936 and was under the direct control of Heinrich Himmler. The first factory was at Allach, a subcamp of Dachau concentration camp. A second production site was set up at Dachau to specialize in figurines. The factories were sub-camps of Dachau concentration camp, with camp inmates supplying the forced labor.

Artwork Title
Moriskentänzer III, Zaddelrock
Alternate Title
Moorish Dancer 3, The Astute
Date
manufacture:  1941
received:  approximately 1950
Geography
manufacture: Allach porcelain factory; Dachau (Germany)
received: Munich (Germany)
Classification
Decorative Arts
Category
Ceramics
Credit Line
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, Gift of Bobbi J. Morris
 
Record last modified: 2023-01-31 14:16:30
This page: https://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/irn524005