Among the more engaging Western-style figures to be produced in Dehua is this porcelain model of a Dutchman seated on a fabric-draped platform decorated with birds and flowers. Enticed by a banana held in the man’s left hand, a monkey climbs up the sitter’s right leg.
An example displaying remnants of red lacquer added in Europe is in the collection of the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.
Other examples are in the Princessehof Museum, Leeuwarden; in the British Museum, London; in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London; in the Musée Guimet, Paris; at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire or in the RA Collection.
Another example from the Mottahedeh collection is in the Becker collection.
In 1703 the private cargo of the East Indiaman Dashwood included “Dutch familyes”, “Dutch tropers” and “Dutch men”, which may refer to these figures although it seems odd that the manifest does not mention the monkey.
These representations of foreigners became normalised in the beginning of the 18th century with hat, garments and long hair as their main characteristics. Their attributes vary but they are often shown with an animal, a lion, and elephant or a monkey as on this piece. It is not known if these figures are based on a model provided by Western merchants or resulted from the observation of the Chinese. They may have appealed to the Chinese too, as caricatures of the “exotic” barbarians.
From the 17th into early the 18th century, monkeys appeared frequently in European paintings and interior design, often as components of “conversation pieces” that served to indicate the family’s wealth and worldly nature. They also became part of an iconography reflective of the European infatuation with Asia. In France, incorporation of their images in chinoiserie decorations was known as singerie.
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