LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY

A sculpture tradition developed in the 18th century China trade encompassing both portrait figures of Western or of Chinese merchants and character-type representations. Including unbaked clay and nodding head figures as well as carved wood, the category's apogee is undoubtedly the life-size figure of the merchant Yamqua given to the East India Marine Society by Benjamin Hodges in 1801. (See C. Crossman, op. cit., pp. 307-21). Figures like the present example enabled Westerners to bring home a work of art embodying the interesting characters they encountered while in the far-off East