QIANLONG PERIOD

The pairing of a Chinese gentleman and lady in these export court figures seems to be exceedingly rare. Those male/female pairs that do exist in the genre are all Western types, such as the famille verte figures often called Louis XIV and his mistress, the famille rose figures of a Dutch merchant and his lady, or the exceptional European couple candleholders in the Copeland collection (illustrated and discussed by W.R. Sargent, op. cit., pp. 136-7). The Ionides collection included a related standing figure of a Chinese nobleman with nodding head (published by M. Jourdain and R.S. Jenyns, Chinese Export Art, p. 110), but his female companion, if he had ever had one, was long gone.