CIRCA 1745, BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK

See Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked: The Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, pp. 58-61 for a discussion of this character, and an illustration of the masked example in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, p. 59, fig. 75. 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 also the example illustrated by Reinhard Jansen (ed.), Commedia dell'Arte Fest der Komödianten, Stuttgart, 2001, p. 59, no. 46.