A very rare figure of a deer, Qing Dynasty, Qianlong period | 清乾隆 粉彩梅花鹿

Since the rare extant examples of Chinese porcelain figures all seem to be preserved in Western collections, they have previously been considered as pieces specifically made for the export market. Figurative models from China indeed proved so popular in the West that they were much copied by European porcelain factories, such as Meissen in Germany.

Porcelain figures of deer and cranes, however, were intended for imperial palaces, or perhaps even their gardens. Fragments of discarded porcelain figures of deer still unpainted, have been found at the Qing imperial kiln sites at Jingdezhen, see Wang Guangyao, ‘Cong Gugong cang Qingdai zhi ci guanyang kan Zhongguo gudai guanyang zhidu. Qingdai yuyaochang yanjiu zhi er’, in Gugong bowuyuan yuankan/Palace Museum Journal, no. 6, 2006, p. 19, fig. 15; and a fragment of a porcelain deer (unpublished) has reputedly also been discovered at the site of the Yuanmingyuan summer palace in Beijing.

Due to the recurring difficulties in creating porcelain animals that are standing on four thin legs, deer were also modelled in seated or recumbent positions, or placed on a plinth and supported underneath with a porcelain rock. Only five comparable free-standing porcelain figures of deer appear to be preserved, all in Western collections. Two figures from the collection of Pamela Cunningham Copeland in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Mass., are illustrated in William R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection. Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Salem, Mass., 1991, cat. nos. 72 and 104, the former from the collection of The Honourable Mrs. Basil Ionides, sold in our London rooms, 2nd July 1963, lot 56; the latter from the collection of HRH The Duke of Gloucester, sold at Christie’s London, 20th May 1954, lot 15; a third standing figure of a stag, similar to the Ionides example, was sold in our Monaco rooms, 23rd June 1986, lot 1040; a much larger standing deer was sold at Christie’s London, 28th April 1999, lot 200; and a much smaller figure was sold in our London rooms, 6th May 1986, lot 154A.