Orleans Rousseau Bust Figurine

This is a really nice and rare figurine made by Orléans in about 1770. In 1757 Charles-Claude Guerault-D’Araubert became the owner of the factory, until his death in 1782 when the factory was closed. When I bought it I thought it might have been made by Mennecy but originally this bust as well as its counterpart of Voltaire were said to have been made by Tournai in Belgium until a researcher published a paper fairly recently on just those two pieces and identified them as having been made by the factory at Orleans. As early as in their lifetime, the two greatest minds of the Age of Enlightenment, Voltaire and Rousseau were represented in different materials such as in bronze, alabaster and biscuit porcelain which is the case here. Here we have the philosopher Rousseau modeled as a bust and placed on a removeable base. Made of biscuit or unglazed porcelain it shows off all that amazing detail of the modeling perfectly. No glaze to obscure them and no paint to hide flaws. It was more prized than painted pieces during this period. The base has a gadrooned design to it on a square base with a peg in the center that fits into the hole in the bottom of the bust. He is amazingly modeled wearing a nice top and lots of detail to his face and hair. The piece is unmarked which is very common on pieces from this period and explains why it had been wrongly attributed. Hard to do somtimes! The piece is in superb condition with the peg on top of the base having been cleanly broken off and reglued and an area to the top of the pedestal that has nibbles to it as shown. Some small minor firing flaws and nibbles to the bottom edge of the base but all in all in amazing condition. The other example I found of this had a flower to the left shoulder which is not present here nor does it look like it ever was. The figurine is 8.875 inches tall, 4.5 inches wide and 3.5 inches deep. A must have piece especially since the products of this maker are very rare and nicely made. Please email me for more information or other pictures.