A PAIR OF CLOISONNÉ ENAMEL STANDING LADIES

Qianlong period
18th century
China

The figures are attendants who bear oval dishes piled high with offerings in gilt bronze. They are dressed in long robes decorated with leaves, flowers and scrolls against a yellow ground - over which are worn similarly decorated long capes of lapis blue colour. They wear gilt bronze ruyi head shoes, and a gilt metal collar of ruyi heads encircles the neck and shoulders. The figures turn slightly left and right - their faces in gilt bronze, with eyes enamelled in white, the pupils in black, and the pouting lips in red. Their black hair is highlighted with gilt metal wirework, parted at the centre and tied up into a topknot; the eyebrows are similarly worked. A tubular support fixed at the back to the inside hem of the dress prevents each figure from falling back.

Height: 18 ¼" / 46.5 cm

Compare:
'Chinese Art - The Minor Arts', volume II, by Jenyn & Watson, Oldbourne Press, London 1962 - fig. 83 shows an illustration of an ice bucket supported by two kneeling figures from The Summer Palace. Note the lotus and scrolling leaf costumes, the construction of the heads, and wirework of their hats.

A further comparison can be made with a pair of large 18th century figures depicting a male and female in the reserve collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.