Ref: W881
£ 5,000
Price is subject to availability and market conditions.
Chinese famille rose couple of court figures with nodding-heads, Qianlong (1736-95), modelled standing upon square plinths with waved ogee-shaped edges and floral cartouches, the ladies with a smiling expression on their nodding heads, wearing high-necked coral red robes with indigo dragon roundels above a crashing wave motif to the bottom hem below which their protruding toes are just visible; each with a long trailing sash, wearing their hair in a chignon style and holding porcelain vases with both hands, the vessels each with a blue collar and hollow to form a holder for incense.
Notes:
A similar pair sold at Bonhams New York at the ‘Cohen & Cohen 50 Years of Chinese Export Porcelain’ on 24th January 2023 for USD 15,300 including
premium; ours are being offered for less than half. At the sale in question they were offered as 'Lot 60 A pair of nodding-head ladies as candleholders, Qianlong period circa 1745'.
Crashing waves are Buddhist symbols. Waves patterns (usually shaped in semicircles as found in woshui (卧水) patterns) are often used to represent tides (潮, cháo) which is the homophone and symbolism for the court "audience" (朝, cháo).
