Rare and Superb Pair of Chinese Canton Silver Enamel and Ivory Portrait Figures

Period: 1700-1900

Origin: China

Medium: Wood, Ivory, polychrome, silver, Enamel

Literature: Canton was the second city of the Chinese Empire and the chief entrepí´t for its overseas trade. The city boasted one of the largest and most diverse artisan communities which was highly responsive to foreign needs and influences. With a steady supply of silver in the form of Spanish eight ‘reale’ pieces brought by foreigners to pay for Chinese goods, Cantonese silversmiths produced, in the late 18th and early 19th centuries, fine silverware at a fraction of its labour cost in London.
The majority of Chinese portrait figures were made from clay and it is often assumed that they were produced for the export market. However, it seems likely that many of them were also made for the internal market in China as ancestor figures. This extraordinary pair of silver filigree figures with life-like expressions, dressed in elaborately decorated enamelled silver clothing appropriate to their rank, would seem not to be made for export, but as revered ancestor figures for a native Chinese market.