A PAIR OF FAMILLE ROSE EAR-CLEANING GROUPS

This subject, along with those of teeth-cleaning and the pedicure, carried erotic overtones to the Chinese viewer, and perhaps to the Western one as well. They seem to have been popular throughout the second half of the 18th century. See W.S. Sargent, The Copeland Collection, no. 59. An example from the collection of Dr. Anton C.R. Dreesman was sold Christie's London, 10 April 2002, lot 502