All Walks of Life

All Walks of Life offers a unique opportunity to get to know the eighteenth-century people of Saxony, Paris, London, and St. Petersburg through the Meissen porcelain sculpture of The Alan Shimmerman Collection.

Johann Joachim Kaendler, along with his fellow modelers and painters at Meissen, captured glimpses of everyday life by paying meticulous attention to the smallest details: the carefully arranged tray of a trinket seller, the personal writing of a love letter, the larding tools of a cook preparing a hare. The Shimmerman Collection’s focus on groups of town criers and artisans provides a fresh look at the creation, production, and distribution of Meissen porcelain. The publication includes the first comprehensive scientific analysis of a major collection of Meissen figures.

With further contributions by André van der Goes, Jennifer Mass, and Aaron Shugar; photography by Melissa Shimmerman