Apes parody human pipe and tabor players

research by frances

Apes and monkeys ( there was no distinction between the two) were depicted playing the pipe and tabor from the earliest images onwards. These, and imaginative hybrid animals (also known as grotesques), were gentle satires depicting monkeys 'aping' many traits in human nature, good and not-so-good.

c 1300	c.1310 Cologne Cathedral, Germany		1338-44 manuscript Belgium	1425-50 enamelled glass goblet, Belgium
mid 15thc manuscript, England	1470-90 print		print	c1480 manuscript France
1509 manuscript	1520-30 manuscript, England		1531-48, carved wood, Belgium	1610 print
wall painting, France	1737 painting on wood, France		1771 satirical print, England
Monkey Orchestra figures 18th - 21st century
1753-80 Meissen
1747 Meissen			21st century Aelteste Volkstedter
1753 Meissen candlestick (broken arms)	1756 Chelsea		1756-8 Chelsea	1765 Meissen Germany
	drum missing
1925				20th century Meissen
			1880-1920	late 19th /early 20th Century
Victorian
early 20th century Sitzendorf	early 20th century Sitzendorf
unknown
20th century	20th century		20th century	Meissen, 20th c
no pipe, vestige of drumstick	1950's copy, Andrea by Sadek	copy	21st c Aelteste Volkstedter

Please note that all these images are copyright.
Contact the museum or library concerned if you would like a larger copy or a better resolution image. If no link is given the item was sold at auction, sometimes individually and sometimes as part of a collection of monkey orchestra figures.

 

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