A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN 'EUROPEAN SUBJECT' FIGURE GROUP
A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN 'EUROPEAN SUBJECT' FIGURE GROUP
A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN 'EUROPEAN SUBJECT' FIGURE GROUP
2 More
A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN 'EUROPEAN SUBJECT' FIGURE GROUP
5 More
PROPERTY FROM THE ESTATE OF MARVIN DAVIDSON
A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN 'EUROPEAN SUBJECT' FIGURE GROUP

QIANLONG PERIOD, MID-18TH CENTURY

Details
A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN 'EUROPEAN SUBJECT' FIGURE GROUP
QIANLONG PERIOD, MID-18TH CENTURY
Modeled smiling and standing, the gentleman wearing a tricorn hat, blue cravat and red coat, his arm draped over the shoulders of the lady, she wearing a purple bodice and blue-green skirt, on a flat grassy base applied with a large pink flower
9 in. (22.9 cm.) high
Provenance
Mildred R. and Rafi Y. Mottahedeh Collection; Sotheby's, New York, 19 October 2000, lot 409.
Literature
D. Howard and J. Ayers, China for the West, New York and London, 1978, II, pp. 616-618, no. 647.
Exhibited
Lincoln, DeCordova Museum, The China Trade: Romance and Reality, June-September 1979.
Richmond, The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, The Mottahedeh Collection, January 1981-October 1982.
New York, Sotheby Parke Bernet, China for the West, February 1984.

Brought to you by

Julia Jones
Julia Jones Associate Specialist

Check the condition report or get in touch for additional information about this

If you wish to view the condition report of this lot, please sign in to your account.

Sign in
View condition report

Lot Essay

Few models very similar to the present lot are known, including some in undecorated white porcelain, suggesting that some examples may have been intended to be colored in Europe. Howard and Ayers, discussing this group, write that it has historically been called 'Governor Duff and his Wife', despite little reason for this association. See Howard and J. Ayers, China for the West, New York and London, 1978, II, pp. 616-618, no. 647.

A very similar figure group from the collection of Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland is preserved in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (ID no. AE85856). This group is illustrated by W.R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Salem, 1991, pp. 218-219, cat. no. 105, where the author notes the frequent occurrence of couples of this type across various media in the arena of East Asian export art, including sculptural groups and paintings on porcelain and furniture. Sargent contends that the motif likely derives from European prints, where it is often called the 'Sailor's Farewell'.

More from Important Americana

View All
View All