Lot 1
1
FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1997 AT 10:00 A.M. (LOTS 1 - 242) CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN
A PAIR OF 'NODDING HEAD' FIGURES

LATE 18TH/EARLY 19TH CENTURY

Details
A PAIR OF 'NODDING HEAD' FIGURES
late 18th/early 19th century
Of an old woman and a young woman, both on square faux marbre bases and carrying gilt-enriched red scarves in one hand, the younger wearing a gilt-bordered black hat and the old with a courtier's rank badge on her robe, her hair in a topknot with red band and gilt ornament
15 7/8in. (37.7cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

Sometimes referred to as 'Brighton Pavilion' figures because of those bought by George III to furnish the Royal Pavilion at Brighton, these nodding head plaster figures are first documented in the West when a set was bought at auction in Denmark in 1777 for the Royal Collection. See B. Dam-Mikkelsen and T. Lundbaek, Ethnographic Objects in the Royal Danish Kunsthammer 1650-1800, pp. 173-79. Several examples in the Peabody Museum of Salem, all holding the same gilt-enriched red scarves as the present pair, are documented as having reached Salem between circa 1790 and 1803. See C.L. Crossman, The China Trade, pp. 314-8.