Lot Essay
A similar group is illustrated in W.R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection - Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, The Peabody Museum of Salem, Massachusetts, 1992, p. 71, no. 25, ibid, "...the laughing twins are the boy Immortals Hehe Erxian, the twin genii of Harmony and Mirth, personifying the spirit of accord, who bestow blessings on marriages....They were revered by traders and merchants as gods of guarding the door of the house....(and they) are Qing Dynasty manifestations of two famous poet-monks of the Tang Dynasty, Hanshan and Shide."