Groom with Rearing Horse

Artisan: Robert Olszewski
Date: 1984
Inscription: Signed on the base with the Goebel stamp, date ’84’ and catalogue number ‘603 P’, and with Robert’s ‘handwritten’ signature below, as well as the name ‘Eva’
Dimensions: 25 x 19 x 12 mm. / 1 x ⅝ x ½ inches (height x width x depth)
Inventory number: 2022.134
Intended Room: Smoking Room
Category: Figurines

Provenance: Purchased on eBay in April 2022.

First issued in 1984, this is one of the sculptures in Robert Olszewski’s ‘Historical Series’, made for Goebel Miniatures as number 603-P in their catalogue. It was inspired by a Meissen figurine created in around 1740 by Johann J. Kaendler, the celebrated porcelain designer, although at the date of creating his own Groom with Rearing Horse, Robert hadn’t yet seen the original. In fact, he didn’t see it until 1989, five years after this was released. His version was made on the basis of of a tiny black-and-white photo.

Due to that, the colouring and a lot of the finer details are Robert’s invention. He considered trying to carve leaves and flowers on the base but, in the end, recognising the difficulty of creating that kind of detail in miniature, he used predominantly painted decoration. In the Olszewski ‘bible’ (see Robert’s artisan page for details), it notes that the greater sophistication of the horse’s pose and musculature, when compared to The Hunt with Hounds of 1981, shows how Robert’s skills had developed during the intervening four years.

The subject is purely decorative. The brightly-dressed groom reaches up to restrain a magnificent rearing white horse, perhaps intended to be one of the famous Lipizzaner stallions. Thanks to the equine theme, it will probably find a home in the Smoking Room, among works linked to riding and hunting.

The presence of the name ‘Eva’ on the base presumably refers to Robert’s wife (they married in 1993). I have heard of other examples where Eva also ‘signed’ Robert’s work, but I’m not sure what it means when she did. I haven’t seen ‘Eva’ inscribed on any of the other versions of this figurine that I’ve seen offered on eBay.