Nevertheless, for over 150 years he was hardly known outside southern Germany.
Nagel in Stuttgart is selling his 21in (54cm) high terracotta model for a clock case in the sale of July 8-10. It is one of several terracotta models with the subject of the Drei Parzen (The Three Fates), which were executed in the 1790s.
The frieze along the base depicts figures from Greek mythology: Achilles, Paris, Hercules and Aeneas. Originally conceived as the basis for a larger sculpture, which was, however, not commissioned, the artist adapted his later versions to become a clock housing.
The model in the auction was shown at an exhibition in Stuttgart in 1987, which brought Dannecker to the attention of a wider public. His current status as an artist can also be measured in terms of the prices his works have sometimes achieved on the auction market, most spectacularly the result for his marble figure Lesbia and her Sparrow, which sold at Sotheby’s in London on July 2, 2019, for £2,295,000 (including premium), having been estimated at £120,000-180,000.
The expectations for the terracotta model in Stuttgart are much more modest: €6000.
