A pair of iron-red enamelled seated spaniels


Qianlong, circa 1750Modelled seated looking to the left and right, their heads raised looking inquisitively with the mouth open and the ears drooping at the sides, their hair markings in rich iron-brown with white patches, a green-ribbonned gilt simulated bell around each neck. Each 17cm (6 3/4in) high. (2).
|清乾隆，約1750年 礬紅獵犬一對Provenance: a distinguished European private collection來源：歐洲顯貴私人收藏For a very similar pair in the Peabody Essex Museum, Boston, see W.R.Sargent, The Copeland Collection - Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Massachusetts, 1991, no.89, where the author suggests a date of circa 1760; and D.S.Howard, The Choice of the Private Trader, London, 1994, where several export models of seated dogs are illustrated, including a pair of grey-haired spaniels, p.275. Export models of dogs include seated pugs and seated hounds; for a pair of the latter, see A.du Boulay, Christie's Pictorial History of Chinese Ceramics, Oxford, 1984, p.295. See also M.Beurdeley, Porcelain of the East India Companies, London, 1962, p.172, no.103 for one formerly in the Resche Collection in Paris. The Chinese called this distinctive breed the 'apple-headed dog'.