{"meta":{"version":"2.1","_links":{"self":{"href":"https://api.vam.ac.uk/v2/object/O100224"},"collection_page":{"href":"https://collections.vam.ac.uk/item/O100224/"}},"images":{"_primary_thumbnail":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AH2500/full/!100,100/0/default.jpg","_iiif_image":"https://framemark.vam.ac.uk/collections/2006AH2500/","_alt_iiif_image":[],"imageResolution":"high","_images_meta":[{"assetRef":"2006AH2500","copyright":"© Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false},{"assetRef":"2017JU3077","copyright":"©Victoria and Albert Museum, London","sensitiveImage":false}]},"see_also":{"_iiif_pres":"https://iiif.vam.ac.uk/collections/O100224/manifest.json","_alt_iiif_pres":[]}},"record":{"systemNumber":"O100224","accessionNumber":"C.3-1941","objectType":"Figure","titles":[{"title":"Seated Chinese man","type":"generic title"}],"summaryDescription":"European porcelain figures like this – which show seated men dressed in exotic garments intended as East Asian – were probably inspired by Chinese models of the laughing Buddha Budai carved in soapstone or made at Jingdezhen in porcelain. They might also owe something  to the engravings accompanying the Dutch traveller Johan Nieuhof’s account of his visit to China in 1655-1657, and do not appear to derive from Dehua porcelain. Somewhat similar seated figures were made at Meissen in the 1710s, and like this one, they lack the conical hat so often used by European artists to indicate Chinese ethnicity. Such figures were sometimes described as ‘pagods’, meaning ‘idols’, in eighteenth-century inventories. Some were used as incense burners and others made in porcelain or painted unfired clay had nodding heads. A figure of this general type is shown seated on a bracket and surrounded by porcelain vases in a design for a mirror to go over a dressing room mantelpiece made by the English furniture designer John Linnell in the 1750s. Porcelain figures were in production at the Saint-Cloud factory by 1731, when ‘all kinds of grotesque figures’ were mentioned in an advertisement. ‘Grotesque’ had a much wider meaning then than now, and was applied to things associated with ornamental grottoes and by extension objects that were bizarre, exaggerated or quaint. ","physicalDescription":"Figure of a seated Chinese man, soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels.","artistMakerPerson":[],"artistMakerOrganisations":[{"name":{"text":"Saint-Cloud porcelain factory","id":"A12332"},"association":{"text":"manufacturer","id":"x33306"},"note":"probably"}],"artistMakerPeople":[],"materials":[{"text":"soft paste porcelain","id":"AAT10665"}],"techniques":[{"text":"painted","id":"AAT54216"},{"text":"glazed","id":"AAT53914"}],"materialsAndTechniques":"Soft-paste porcelain, painted in enamels","categories":[{"text":"Ceramics","id":"THES48982"},{"text":"Porcelain","id":"THES48907"},{"text":"Figures & Decorative ceramics","id":"THES48954"}],"styles":[],"collectionCode":{"text":"CER","id":"THES48594"},"images":["2006AH2500","2017JU3077"],"imageResolution":"high","galleryLocations":[{"current":{"text":"139","id":"THES49874"},"free":"","case":"T","shelf":"2","box":""}],"partTypes":[[{"text":"Figure","id":""}]],"contentWarnings":[{"apprise":"","note":""}],"placesOfOrigin":[{"place":{"text":"France","id":"x28849"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"productionDates":[{"date":{"text":"ca. 1720-1740","earliest":"1715-01-01","latest":"1740-12-31"},"association":{"text":"made","id":"x28654"},"note":""}],"associatedObjects":[],"creditLine":"Purchased with the assistance of the Murray Bequest","dimensions":[{"dimension":"Height","value":"19.1","unit":"cm","qualifier":"","date":{"text":"","earliest":null,"latest":null},"part":"","note":""}],"dimensionsNote":"","marksAndInscriptions":[],"objectHistory":"","historicalContext":"","briefDescription":"Figure of a seated Chinese man, made in France, about 1720-1740, probably by Saint-Cloud porcelain factory","bibliographicReferences":[{"reference":{"text":"Passion for Porcelain: masterpieces of ceramics from the British Museum and the Victoria and Albert Museum.","id":"AUTH321139"},"details":"pp.280-281","free":""}],"production":"Acquired as French, probably Mennecy. Considered probably Saint-Cloud by Bernard Rondot 1998.","productionType":{"text":"","id":""},"contentDescription":"","contentPlaces":[],"associatedPlaces":[],"contentPerson":[],"associatedPerson":[],"contentOrganisations":[],"associatedOrganisations":[],"contentPeople":[],"associatedPeople":[],"contentEvents":[],"associatedEvents":[],"contentOthers":[{"text":"man","id":"x35641"},{"text":"fruit","id":"AAT11868"}],"contentConcepts":[],"contentLiteraryRefs":[],"galleryLabels":[],"partNumbers":["C.3-1941"],"accessionNumberNum":"3","accessionNumberPrefix":"C","accessionYear":1941,"otherNumbers":[],"copyNumber":"","aspects":["WHOLE"],"assets":[],"recordModificationDate":"2025-04-15","recordCreationDate":"2004-06-07","availableToBook":false}}