A RARE AND UNUSUAL PAIR OF CLOISONNE FIGURES OF FEMALE ATTENDANTS QING DYNASTY, 19TH CENTURY

each standing with hands held at waist level to support a detachable oval dish piled with peaches, wearing a cape over a gown that leaves the feet exposed, the garments decorated with butterflies against a wan-fret ground, the neck encircled with a gilt-bronze ruyi-cloud collar, the separately cast heads with a gentle smile framed by pierced ears and hair styled in a rolled bun (5)

Cloisonné figures are rare and the present pair is unusual for its depiction of two female attendants holding food offerings. More common are figures of animals and deities. Two cloisonné female figures in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, dated by the museum to the Qianlong period or later, are illustrated in Beatrice Quette ed., Cloisonne: Chinese Enamels from the Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties, New York, 2011, p. 297.