Figure
Category
Ceramics
Date
1700 - 1750
Materials
Porcelain
Measurements
855 mm (Height)
Place of origin
Dehua
Order this imageCollection
Saltram, Devon
NT 870781.2
Summary
One of a pair of figures of dogs, porcelain, depicted sitting on its haunches and with a collar around its neck, made in Dehua, Fujian Province, China, 1700–50, in undecorated porcelain with a clear glaze.
Full description
A breed of lean hunting hound corresponding to the appearance of these Dehua figures, known as xiquan (細犬), was popular with the upper classes of the Qing empire. A group of ‘portraits’ of named xiquan by Giuseppe Castiglione (1688–1766), a Jesuit priest who worked as an artist at the Qing court and was known there as Lang Shining (郎世寧), is in the collection of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (inv. nos. 003732–003740). The Dehua figures of such hounds, however, were produced for export to the West.
Provenance
Accepted by HM Government in lieu of inheritance tax and allocated to the National Trust, 1957.