Amazing Vulture Figurine

This is a really superb figurine of a bearded vulture made by Meissen during the Jugendstil / Art Nouveau period of the early 20th century. It was first designed in 1904 by the famous Paul Walther who designed quite a few animal figurines for them during this period. The figure is of a bird sitting on a rock at the edge of a cliff. The figure is superbly painted in their famous and rare under glaze colors from this period. It is very well modeled with lots of details and hand painted perfectly. The figure is in great condition! It does have some minor manufacturing flaws like two extra pain spots and a ground down firing flaw but these are from when it was made and there is no actual damage, repair, etc. It is marked under neath with the blue crossed swords mark (first choice) as well as the model number U184, impressed number 156 and the artist monogram to the back base as shown. The swords are not under glaze because the bottom was ground down to stop it from being wobbly and then the swords were reapplied at a later firing. It happens from time to time but is not common. The piece is still a tiny bit wobbly if you try but perfectly stable when on display. The coloration of this example is extra nice! The piece is 10.5 inches tall, 3.75 inches wide and 5 inches deep. Please email me for more information or other pictures.