For a very similar example, see The Jack and Belle Linsky Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, 1984), p. 323, no. 300. The Linsky example, which is modelled with the figure standing on a mound base, was formerly in the collection of Comte X. de Chavagnac, Paris, and subsequently in the Karrick Riggs Collection, New York. Also see Daniëlle Kisluk-Grosheide, 'The Reign of Magots and Pagods' The Metropolitan Museum Journal, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2002, No. 37, p. 181, fig. 8 for the same figure, and pp. 177-197 for a discussion of the 'exotic figures that engendered widespread fascination in late-seventeenth and eighteenth-century France, when a variety of pagods and magots imported from the Far East - and subsequently imitations from Europe, as well - became eagerly sought after by fashionable collectors and dealers alike' (p. 187).
The present figure may be inspired by Japanese figures of the late 17th century, see John Ayers, Oliver Impey, J.V.G. Mallet, Porcelain for Palaces, The Fashion for Japan in Europe 1650-1750 (London, 1990), p. 181, nos. 164-165. It is also very similar to the figures with hands outstretched holding candle branches on a pair of ormolu Oriental figures mounted as a candelabra, which were formerly in the René Fribourg Collection and sold by Sotheby's London on 17th-18th October 1963, lot 739, and subsequently in these Rooms on 12th December 2002, lot 14 (for an illustration of these candelabra, see page 84). Also see Hugo Morley-Fletcher, Early European Porcelain and Faience as collected by Kiyi and Edward Pflueger (London, 1993), Vol. II, pp. 72-73 for a figure of the same type but seated.