17TH CENTURY

The foreigners are readily identifiable by their clothes and distinctive facial features. Foreigners were often represented in Chinese art during the 17th and 18th centuries reflecting a fascination with all things foreign at this time. A hand scroll in the collection of the Palace Museum, Beijing, illustrates many figures described as being from the West whose attributes are discussed in both Chinese and Manchu. See Splendors of a Flourishing Age, Macau, 1999, no. 42. The present lot may be compared with a similar 'foreigners' censer sold at Christie's New York, 14-15 September 2017, lot 925.