Object Description
Chinese Ceramic Workshop-Scaled model with 17 polychromed figures.
19th Century
Ceramic, wood
80 x 129 x 81 cm
31 1/2 x 50 3/4 x 31 7/8 in
This group of Chinese polychromed-decorated nodding head figures date from the 19th C. Some have nodding heads and are portraiwts of individuals, and others served as generalized representations of the ceramic class and occupation.They became popular as objects of curiosity that communicated the costumes and customs of Chinese culture. These figures were usually constructed by molding clay over bamboo frames and were than allowed to air dry and covered in a fine paper. Gesso was applied and the figures were decorated with a water-based gouache. Since these objects were not glazed nor fired in a kiln and are therefore more fragile and experience greater wear over time.Although the specific manufacturers and dates of such figures are comparatively rarely recorded, a documented pair of nodding-head figures dating to 1803 ‘copied from the life and brought from Canton’ are in the collection at the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts (C.L. Crossman, The China Trade, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, p.317, col.pl. 112). Similarly, a group of related nodding-head figures ere sold from the collection of David Style, Esq., Christie’s house sale, Wateringbury Place, Maidstone, Kent, 31 May-2 June 1978, lots 200-204. Some of these figures were signed ‘J.D. Gianelli…August 25 1807’. Gianelli was probably Dominico Gianelli (d. 1841), assumed to be the son of the sculptor in plaster J.B. Gianelli, who supplied four statues for the Great Hall of Carlton House in 1789 (R. Gunnis, The Dictionary of British Sculptors, 1965, pp. 166-67).The Diorama is said to have been exhibited at an International Exhibition in Copenhagen.