From 1934, sculptor Franz Xaver Lorch was among the permanent Nymphenburg staff for many years. He had an excellent reputation above all for his reverent monumental religious wooden sculptures. Now and again he also turned his attention to profane subjects and designed animal figures such as this lion, measuring just nine centimetres. The lion, Bavaria’s heraldic animal, is holding the hand-painted white and blue diamond escutcheon firmly between his paws.