CIRCA 1740-45, FAINT PUCE TRIANGLE TO UNDERSIDE

As Meredith Chilton points out, 'this character should probably be renamed "The Masquerader", as neither his costume nor his posture has anything to do with the legal profession, nor do they indicate an actor dressed as a lawyer. Rather, this costume was inspired by a popular disguise worn in Venice by both men and women particularly, but by no means exclusively, during Carnival...this costume was adopted all over Europe in the eighteenth century by participants in the popular masquerades'. See Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto, Catalogue (Singapore, 2001), pp. 58-61 for this discussion, and also illustrations of the Gardiner example, figs. 74 and 75.

An example with very similar decoration (with the exception of a white mask), formerly in the Rosenfeld Collection, was sold by Christie's New York on 24th April 1984, lot 87. Three examples with coloured robes and white masks were sold in these Rooms on 22nd June 1992, lot 207; on 9th April 1979, lot 149, and on 25th June 1968, lot 29. Another similar figure, formerly in the Walker Collection and sold in these Rooms on 25th July 1945, lot 15, is now in the Irwin Untermyer Collection, no. 47a, and is illustrated by Yvonne Hackenbroch, Meissen and other Continental Porcelain, Faience and Enamel in the Irwin Untermyer Collection (London, 1956), pl. 41, fig. 47b.