Footnotes

• For a comparable semi-erotic group, see D.S.Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader, London, 1994, p.257, col.pl.306, where a lady and gentlemen are seated together drinking in a suggestive manner; and see footnote to lot 668.
  
  Another example of a figural group engaged in seemingly everyday activities, the erotic overtones to this piece are clear in the intimacy of the pose, including the exposed lower leg and bound foot of the woman and the outstretched arm of the man. The bound foot in particular was considered very erotic; the practice began in the Tang Dynasty, and continued amongst Han Chinese up to and including the Qing Dynasty, despite the disapproval of the Manchu court.
  
  For groups of figures in identical pose, see M.Cohen and W.Motley, Mandarin and Menagerie: James E. Sowell Collection vol.I: Chinese and Japanese Export Ceramic Figures, Surrey, 2008, p.119, pl.6.5, which the authors date to circa 1785, noting that such later groups have no plinths. A similarly-modelled group, but with slightly differently coloured enamels, was sold at Christie's London, 10 April 2002, lot 502.

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Category: Asian Art / Chinese Works of Art

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