A Chinese man

The subject and style of this statuette representing a Chinese man recalls German porcelain-figures, and the European taste for Chinoiserie in the eighteenth century. The figure was formerly called a Harlequin in the Museum records, but this figure is probably not directly related to commedia dell'arte figures, but to the range of statuettes, often adorned with goldsmiths' mounts, which were produced in Dresden in the early eighteenth century. It is linked with the taste for Chinoiserie in the eighteenth century, and in particular to contemporary porcelain figures.