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Lot Essay
For a pair that directly relates to the present lot, see W. Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2012, pp. 492-3, no. 270, dated circa 1803. In his discussion, Sargent explains how nodding head figures became popular amongst Westerners as objects of curiosity that communicated the exotic customs and costumes of Chinese culture. These figures were usually constructed by molding clay over bamboo frames. They were then allowed to air dry and covered in a fine paper. Gesso was applied and the figures were decorated with a water-based gouache. Details were then added, such as human-hair, horn fingernails, earrings and instruments (see op.cit. pp. 484-497 for a further discussion). Since these objects were not glazed nor fired in a kiln, they are more fragile and experience greater wear over time. For another similar pair, see The Noel & Harriette Levine Collection; Doyle, New York, 17 January 2018, lot 340.
Nodding head figures often were portraits of individuals, but the present pair, like the Peabody Essex Museum’s, is likely a generalized representation of a certain class and occupation. For a similar seated pair described as a 'Civil servant and his head wife', see B. Dam-Mikkelsen and T. Lundbaek, Ethnographic Objects in the Royal Danish Kunstkammer 1650-1800, Copenhagen, 1980, pp. 176 and 179, figs. EBc 249 and 254. It is known that nodding head figures were familiar to the Western market as early as 1765 when they are depicted in Johan Zoffany’s painting of Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) with her Two Eldest Sons, which remains in the Royal Collection (RCIN 400146). Similar seated figures are recorded in the 1777 inventory at Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm when a hundred small clay figures and seventeen larger papier-mâché figures were listed (see P. Ferguson, ‘Luxury Objects and Objects d’Art’, ed. R. Cowell, Ham House 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, Yale, New Haven, 2013, p. 323), and they also came into the collections at the Royal Danish Kunstkammer, and in the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London around the same time. Nodding head figures were documented in America shortly thereafter in 1791 by Rev. William Bentley, a Salem minister. He recorded that on a visit for ‘dinner by Mr. Barrell, & family, who sh[o]wed me large & elegant arrangements for amusement…He has a variety of paintings, engravings, & representations in clay from China.’
Nodding head figures often were portraits of individuals, but the present pair, like the Peabody Essex Museum’s, is likely a generalized representation of a certain class and occupation. For a similar seated pair described as a 'Civil servant and his head wife', see B. Dam-Mikkelsen and T. Lundbaek, Ethnographic Objects in the Royal Danish Kunstkammer 1650-1800, Copenhagen, 1980, pp. 176 and 179, figs. EBc 249 and 254. It is known that nodding head figures were familiar to the Western market as early as 1765 when they are depicted in Johan Zoffany’s painting of Queen Charlotte (1744-1818) with her Two Eldest Sons, which remains in the Royal Collection (RCIN 400146). Similar seated figures are recorded in the 1777 inventory at Drottningholm Palace, Stockholm when a hundred small clay figures and seventeen larger papier-mâché figures were listed (see P. Ferguson, ‘Luxury Objects and Objects d’Art’, ed. R. Cowell, Ham House 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, Yale, New Haven, 2013, p. 323), and they also came into the collections at the Royal Danish Kunstkammer, and in the Queen’s Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London around the same time. Nodding head figures were documented in America shortly thereafter in 1791 by Rev. William Bentley, a Salem minister. He recorded that on a visit for ‘dinner by Mr. Barrell, & family, who sh[o]wed me large & elegant arrangements for amusement…He has a variety of paintings, engravings, & representations in clay from China.’