15 | A PAIR OF SEATED POLYCHROME, PLASTER NODDING FIGURES Qianlong period Circa 1780 AD China The figures represent a man and a woman each seated on rockwork bases with detachable nodding heads, and placed upon rectangular plain wood pallet stands. The smiling man's painted hair is combed back over the crown of his balding head, and swept under a cap; two parts of a ponytail (made of real hair) hang behind. He is dressed in a pale blue robe, crossed at the chest and decorated with white flowering sprigs of orchids and peonies, and other stylised leaf roundels in dark green. The edges of his cuffs and collar have similar stylised leaf borders in gold - against a black ground. His right hand rests upon his thigh and the left hand holds a scarf against his side. The woman has a life like half smiling face - above which her hair is double coiled and tied into a high knot, held together by two stick pins. She is dressed in a black outer robe decorated with sprigs of red flowers, and pinned together at the chest with a ruyi head clasp. A lime green under robe is visible - falling to the knees, and decorated with an impressionistic flower pattern. A third yellow ochre robe decorated with flower sprigs surrounds the legs. Her left hand is placed upon her thigh, and her right holds a scarf in a mirror image of her partner's. Height: 24" and 25 ¾" / 61 cm and 65 cm Similar examples: 'Ethnograghic Objects in The Royal Danish Kunstkammer 1650-1800', National Museet, Kobenhavn - edited by Mikkelsen & Lundbaek, 1980 - page 178 figs. Ebc 254 and Ebc 249. These seated figures are known to have entered the Royal collection in 1779 AD. 'The Chinese Pavilion at Drottningholm' Allhems - Malmo, 1974 - see full colour page 181. Also: 'A tale of three cities Canton, Shanghai and Hong Kong', by David Howard for Sotheby's, London 1997, page 148 fig. 190. Plaster figures such as these - ranging in size from eight inches to life size - were modelled by hand, and then painted in gouache colours. Some examples were dressed in silk clothing and others made in clay. These heads are loose and rest on a cross bar in the neck - their long iron rods weighted at the end with lead; this acts like a pendulum and allows them to nod freely.