A PAIR OF PEWTER CANDLESTICK FIGURES OF FOREIGNERS QING DYNASTY, MID-19TH CENTURY

each in the form of a European gentleman, wearing a double-breasted waistcoat, breeches, overcoat and solar topee hat, holding a gu-form vase containting a peach bough, the base with maker's mark reading Chaocheng Xiao Yisheng diantong (Capital city, Xiao Yisheng pewter); together with a pair of bronze candlesticks, each in the form of Liu Hai standing on one leg on the back of a three-legged toad, with later cup and drip-pan (4)

Foreigners:
Sotheby's New York, 19th March 1997, lot 338.

Several similar pewter candlestick figures of Foreigners are illustrated in David S. Howard, A Tale of Three Cities. Canton, Shanghai and Canton, London, 1997, pp. 196-199, nos. 259-265, and are ascribed dates between 1800 and 1860. The distinctive 'Solar Topee' hat worn by the present figures did not become fashionable until the middle of the 19th century.