RO N A L D PHILLIPS
17 A HUGE PAIR OF GEORGE III CHINESE EXPORT POLYCHROME DECORATED SEATED ‘NODDING HEAD’ FIGURES An exceptionally rare and highly important pair of late 18th century Chinese export polychrome decorated seated ‘nodding head’ figures of unprecedented large size of a mandarin and his consort, retaining almost all the original paint decoration. The bearded mandarin with a very naturalistic, open facial expression, with a ponytail of real hair and wearing a light blue robe with red lining, tied at the waist, and with wide sleeves decorated with red and white peonies and green leaves, holding a red handkerchief in his left hand, his right hand resting on his knee, and seated on a green painted rockwork seat; on the original green painted wood plinth. The consort with a somewhat more sombre expression, with tied back hair modelled in plaster and held by two large metal hair pins, wearing a dark green coat with yellow collar fastened by a single button, again decorated in bright red and white peonies, and showing a light green undercoat and yellow skirt with similar peonies and blue trim, holding a red handkerchief in her right hand, with her left hand on her knee, and resting on opposing green painted rockwork; on the original green painted wood plinth. Note: These figures have survived in exemplary original condition. The scale of the figures is extremely large, and very few other seated figures of this size are known to exist. Chinese export, circa 1780 Mandarin: Height: 24 in; 61 cm Width: 13¼ in; 33.5 cm Depth: 10 in; 25.5 cm
Consort: Height: 25¼ in; 64 cm Width: 13¼ in; 33.5 cm Depth: 10¼ in; 25.5 cm
Provenance: Private collection, London. Literature: Percy Macquoid and Ralph Edwards, The Dictionary of English Furniture, revised edition, 1954, vol. II, p. 364, fig. 21. Margaret Jourdain, Chinese Export Art in the Eighteenth Century, 1967, pp. 110–11. Michael Cohen and William Motley, Mandarin and Menagerie, 2008, pp. 124–5, item 7.1.
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