Archaism was a style much favoured by the court in the 18th century, and this spawned an abundance of artworks in various media to be produced in this approach. While some pieces were direct copies of well-known archaic jades and bronzes, many were imbued with fantastic 18th-century originality. The present lot would belong to the latter group, as it is only loosely based on a traditional bronze form, without attempting to be faithful to any archaic style.