Man skinning cat candelabra

Does anyone recognize the mark for these candelabras?

 

What's the other guy doing? You sure that isn't supposed to be a violin bow? It looks like it's a replacement for something else that was broken.

And the man's left wrist was broken and not well mended.

 

Could be Schierholz or Voigt. Two names to look at anyhow.

Someone's comment on Chinese music?

 

My book says the marks are either "Plaue - Germany" (most likely) or "Sitzendorf - Germany" and both dating around 1890-1900.
Someone seems to think playing a violin is akin to a screeching cat
Cheers
Stephen

 

ahh, that makes more sense Stephen. Haha it does sort of look like he is skinning the cat at first glance. Thanks for the all the responses. I do think Sitzendorf is in the running. I have to look at Plaue and Voigtlander, but I can't find anything similar.

 

Please, please, please tell me this is not someone's (the maker's) attempt at humor by pretending to draw a bow across a cat as a reference to "catgut" strings which were not even made out of cat guts.

 

I actually found something similar. With a search of Sitzendorf and 214. I found this old listing. Similar to mine, but done in colour and slightly better faces. One of mine appears to be oriental. Anyhow this is what the original listing said:

"Here we have a truly STUNNING pair of VERY RARE porcelain candlesticks.

These show off the sense of humour of the day and have a magnificently amusing subject matter.


Each figure is of a harlequin playing a musical instrument, however each musical instrument is an animal!


One is playing the 'CAT' fiddle and the other is playing a 'PUG' hurdy gurdy!


They each have a blue hash mark to the base of Sitzendorf, late 19th century. They both also have impressed numbers to the base '214'.

These harlequin style figures were high end items and Meissen examples sell for many thousands."

 

Still not buying the Sitzendorf ID as they had slanted lines and "Plaue" has nice straight ones like you have. Oddly I can't find an internet reference that is as good as the one in my book "Directory of European Porcelain-Ludwig Danckert". There seems to be some confusion between the two marks online. But let's face it. It doesn't make much difference in the scheme of things so enjoy them.
Cheers
Stephen

 

Definitely playing a cat, not skinning it. He is holding a bow, but at the same time pulling its tail. The other one is pulling the dogs tail. Needless to say, this kind of 'musical' entertainment is no longer allowed.

 

I'm going to assume for my own peace of mind that they were humorous items, not representing any actual cruelty to real animals. I wonder what musical instrument the dog was supposed to represent....bagpipes, since it was held under the arm?

 

They might have used an octopus for bagpipes. Although it would be a bit slippery.

 

Or for you fans of B.B. King: