A PAIR OF FAMILLE ROSE EAR-CLEANING GROUPS

LAST QUARTER 18TH CENTURY

Details

A PAIR OF FAMILLE ROSE EAR-CLEANING GROUPS
Last quarter 18th century
Each with a smiling man wearing a long queue and black boots, his arm stretched out and resting on the knee of the woman who kneels beside him attending to his ear, her left hand resting atop his head and her skirt raised revealing her lower leg
7½in. (19cm.) high (2)

Lot Essay

This subject, along with those of teeth-cleaning and the pedicure, carried erotic overtones to the Chinese viewer, and perhaps to the Western one as well. They seem to have been popular throughout the second half of the 18th century. See W.S. Sargent, The Copeland Collection, no. 59. An example from the collection of Dr. Anton C.R. Dreesman was sold Christie's London, 10 April 2002, lot 502

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