This thickly slip-cast figure is a direct copy of a Chinese blanc de chine, Dehua, model of Budai, the semi-legendary Buddhist monk of Tang Dynasty China.

Figure of Budai. Inv. no. PO 8570. The Royal Dresden Porcelain Collection. Porzellansammlung, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

The Chinese model was well known in Europe. Four are listed in the Dresden Japanese Palace Inventory of 1721 and P. J. Donnelly illustrates an example with French gilt-bronze mounts dateable to 1745-49.[i]

A Chelsea white incense burner probably modelled by Nicholas Sprimont, 16.0 cm high, 1745-49 Nigel Morgan collection.[ii]

Such figures are very rare in Chelsea porcelain and perhaps were soon superseded by the more European style chinoiserie versions of such figures which were adapted into elements of tea services and incense burners, although exact copies of Dehua figures of Guanyin were also being made in the Raised Anchor Period.[iii] Two other examples are illustrated in Legge & Mallet 1984 cat. No. 1, Bradshaw 1992. pl. 13.

Condition:
Two chips to base, chips to left thumb and right little finger

Provenance:
Christie’s London, 14th December 1981, lot 132
Christie’s London, 6 December 2004, lot 300.
The Stanley F. Goldfein Collection

References:

Donnelly 1969
P. J. Donnelly, Blanc de Chine: The Porcelain of Tehua in Fukien, (Faber & Faber, London, 1969)

Legge & Mallet 1984
Margaret Legge and J.V.G Mallet, Flowers and fables: A survey of Chelsea porcelain, 1745-69, (National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1984)

Gabszewicz & Manners 2009
Anton Gabszewicz & Errol Manners, A Selection from The Nigel Morgan Collection of English Porcelain, (E & H Manners, June 2009)

Bradshaw 1992
P. Bradshaw, Bow Porcelain Figures, (London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1992)

Price: £7,500

——————————————————————————

[i] Donnelly 1969, pl. 5 B.

[ii] Gabszewicz & Manners 2009, no. 1.

[iii] Gabszewicz & Manners 2009, no. 6.