17TH/18TH CENTURY

Blanc-de-chine 'nodding-head' figures of this very large size were made primarily for the large houses and palaces of Europe. Several can be found with cold-paint decoration added in Europe shortly after their arrival in the west. Indeed, the collection of Augustus the Strong included several such examples, which are now in the Dresden Palace Museum. See P.J. Donnelly, Blanc de Chine, New York, 1969, pl. 104A for the detachable head from a related figure, which is in the British Museum, and p. 178 where the author suggests that these figures were probably made before 1725 based on inventories of the time, and that three tall figures at Rosenborg Castle were catalogued by 1716. At Meissen, white-glazed 'nodding' head figures were being made in the middle of the 18th century, and one can only speculate whether figures such as these examples were their inspiration.