Large Shoemaker Figurine

This is a superb figurine of a shoemaker made by Niderviller around 1800. The gentleman is sitting on a stool, dressed nicely in long socks, short pants, a white shirt with a hole in it, a hat with a hole in it and a leather apron. He has a shoe on his lap that he is working on with a little table in front of him that has some tools on it. A hammer and damaged shoe on the base with a tub of water. The back is a grey wall made of large stones with a wooden top that a puce cloth is draped over and a bird case is hanging on the edge. Typical rock base! This model was copied for years by other French makers but this is the original one and quite hard to find. It is a large figure for this maker and with it come issues with the base which is normal. There are large firing cracks underneath that come up the base edge a bit. Not bad. The table that has his tools on it has been off the base and the top came off as well which ahs been reglued but could be done better! There is a chip to one of the tool handles, a tiny chip to the puce cloth and the bird cage has been worked on as well plus a small chip to the blue bow on top. The cage is almost always gone so it is nice to at least have it here. The orange parts are original butthe base was broken off and reglued and someone added these grey thin pieces to fill in the sides on two sides which could be improved. One side is still original and the bird is still there which I have never seen before. All in all an amazing piece that displays nicely but could use a bit of restoration to bring it back to perfection! It was painted even on the underside and the base edge to blend it in better with all thos cracks instead of simple having the gold edge and white underside more common to this maker. The figure is really nicely hand painted and the rock base and face are what gives it away as Niderviller. A very heavy piece as are all their figures! As is the case with most of their figurines it is unmarked underneath. The piece is 9 inches tall and about 6.125 inches in diameter. Please email me for more information or other pictures.