This porcelain group-piece, modelled by E.A. Leuteritz and based upon 18th century examples, is a excellent example the work of the celebrated Meissen porcelain manufacturers. Bearing the Meissen crossed-swords mark, it depicts the God Bacchus with a group of his attendants and fellow revellers. Dominating the composition, the god is seated atop a barrel holding a goblet of wine aloft, a leopard skin draped across his lap. A kneeling nymph beside him pours wine from a jug into a goblet held by a seated faun. A winged putto at the front holds another goblet of wine, and a fruiting grape vine at the back of the rockwork base is applied with leaves and flowers. Bacchus is identified by the traditional thyrsus held in his left hand, which is made of the same greenery and foliage scatttered across the object, and which adds these wonderful splashes of colour to the brilliant white glaze of the porcelain. The red of the wine, the gilding on Bacchus' staff and the barrel tap, and the beautiful floral-patterned lilac of the nymph's drapery, all deftly applied, similarly complement the piece and add to its beauty.
Overall the group is 32.5cm high, and the crossed-swords mark can be seen in underglaze-blue. It was modelled some time in the period between 1843 and 1850, and has the incised model number 35, impressed 138.