A CHINESE EXPORT PORCELAIN 'EUROPEAN SUBJECT' FIGURE GROUP

Few models very similar to the present lot are known, including some in undecorated white porcelain, suggesting that some examples may have been intended to be colored in Europe. Howard and Ayers, discussing this group, write that it has historically been called 'Governor Duff and his Wife', despite little reason for this association. See Howard and J. Ayers, China for the West, New York and London, 1978, II, pp. 616-618, no. 647.

A very similar figure group from the collection of Mrs. Lammot du Pont Copeland is preserved in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (ID no. AE85856). This group is illustrated by W.R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Salem, 1991, pp. 218-219, cat. no. 105, where the author notes the frequent occurrence of couples of this type across various media in the arena of East Asian export art, including sculptural groups and paintings on porcelain and furniture. Sargent contends that the motif likely derives from European prints, where it is often called the 'Sailor's Farewell'.