Model Number: A 1149
Height: 11″
Modeled in 1926 by Paul Scheurich
This figure depicts Nelusco, from Giacomo Meyerbeer’s opera, L’Africaine (or Vasco de Gama), which the composer completed just before his death in 1864 and received its premiere in Paris the following year. Scheurich probably completed the model by 1923, though due to his illness it was only offered to the manufactory by his wife in July 1924. Initially, Max Adolf Pfeiffer assured Käthe Scheurich that the model would be be stored pending her husband’s recovery. Due to Scheurich’s protracted illness, however, the figure was produced in white from 1926 though it was not offered for sale until the end of 1927. The first coloured example was sold in October 1929, though it isn’t known whether Scheurich supplied the decorative scheme after his recovery from illness at the end of 1928, or the manufactory developed its own colour schemes. By 1933, only 5 figures had been sold and by 1945 further 3.