Scaled model of Chinese workshop with 17 polychromed terracotta figures.

This diorama of an artisanal workshop groups 17 Chinese polychromed-decorated nodding head figures dated from the 19th C. Thirteen have nodding heads and are portraits of individuals, and some served as generalized representations of their trade class and occupation. Terracotta figures became popular as objects of curiosity that communicated the costumes and customs of Chinese culture. These figures were usually constructed by moulding clay and were then allowed to air dry and covered in a fine paper. Gesso was applied and the figures were decorated with a water-based gouache. Since these objects were not glazed nor fired in a kiln and are therefore more fragile, they experienced greater wear over time. Although the specific manufacturers and dates of such figures are comparatively rarely recorded, a documented pair of more elaborated nodding-head figures dating to 1803 'copied from the life and brought from Canton’, are in the collection at the Peabody Museum in Salem, Massachusetts (C.L. Crossman, The China Trade, Woodbridge, Suffolk, 1991, p.317, col.pl. 112). Similarly, a group of nodding-head figures were sold from the collection of David Style, Esq., Christie's house sale, Wateringbury Place, Maidstone, Kent, 31 May-2 June 1978, lots 200-204.This diorama was made for an international European exhibition; most probably “Kina I Tivoli” in the Tivoli gardens in Kopenhagen-Denmark 1902.We acquired them from a Danish private collection