QIANLONG PERIOD (1736-1795)

This model is related to several particularly finely-modeled and rare groups which are of a subtly erotic nature, in which not only the gentleman's leg is exposed but also the lady's leg including her bound foot. An example of this model is preserved in the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem (ID no. AE85832.A). See W.R. Sargent, The Copeland Collection: Chinese and Japanese Ceramic Figures, Salem, 1991, pp. 130-131, no. 59, also illustrated on the front cover. The author mentions related groups depicting men and women at everyday activities, such as ear-cleaning, teeth-cleaning, music, wine-drinking and smoking lessons as well as the pedicure; he suggests that these activities are preliminary to sexual advances, and that all have a veiled eroticism. Another such 'pedicure' group, from the Dr. Anton C. R. Dreesmann Collection, was sold by Christie's, London, 10 April 2002, lot 500; and a further example was sold by Christie's, London, 4 November 2010, lot 233.