
This antique Meissen Chinoiserie Porcelain Female Pagoda Nodder pictured above is a fascinating piece currently being auctioned on eBay. On this piece, the head, tongue, and two hands move. Meissen was the first European hard-paste porcelain developed in 1708 by Ehrenfried Walther von Tschirnhaus. After his death that year, it was continued and brought to market in 1710 by Johann Friedrich Bottger at Meissen, near Dresden. Before then, porcelain, a highly valuable export, had been perfected only by the Chinese. These Nodding Pagodas date from the 1720s and 1730s. They are extremely rare and valuable because they were produced for a short time when Meissen was slavishly copying models from east Asia before they developed their own unmistakable style. Nodders were used to let people know if an earthquake was starting, because even a slight tremor caused the moving parts to react. You must check out the video of this "first bobblehead."