Rare early allegorical Meissen figurine group

"Victoria I" from the "Great Russian Order" for Empress Catherine II. Front side curved base, surrounded by relief ornament borders, with a fully sculpted group as an allegory of victory. Rising among numerous war trophies, enveloping a tree trunk, adorned with an ornate armor with a large, feather-crowned helmet, flanked by standards, quivers, fasces, sword, morning star, and cannon barrel and cannon tools as attributes of war. Below lie field drums and a book. On the left sits Clio, muse of history, in a pink floral patterned gown with a book, holding a feather and trumpet in her hands, or rather, on the right sits a putto, adorning the cannon with a laurel garland. Polychrome painting with rich gold staffage. Possibly by Johann Joachim Kaendler, 1773. Possibly restored; sword mark. Height 34 cm. 26 cm x 15 cm. A representation of a model from the so-called "Great Russian Order" of Empress Catherine II, which she commissioned for the Imperial Palace in Oranienbaum (now Lomonosov) near St. Petersburg. The counterpart "Victoria II" is designed with a seated Minerva as the goddess of war and the subordinate attribute of the owl. The symbolic meaning of both groups is already evident in Kaendler's titling in his reports from April 1773, where he refers to them as "Victoria I and II" or as "Victory of the Russian Empress." The figure groups symbolize the rule and politics of Catherine the Great. The design from the late 18th century is in the State Art Collections Dresden (Inv. No. P.E. 402). See Pietzsch, Catalog Meissen for the Tsars, No. 175F, p. 115ff. A rare early allegorical porcelain figure group "Victoria I" modeled by J.J. Kaendler in 1772, originally part of the "Great Russian Order" for Tsarina Catherine II of Russia, called "the Great." Insignificantly restored. Crossed swords mark. Meissen. Circa 1773.