Featured interesting Chinese figurine from 1740. Ashkanazi jewish woman.

Originally referred to as Lady Duff (see Christies label on bottom) research by expert Ron Fuchs II showed that this actually an Ashkanazi woman based on period dress. From a recent auction.

 

https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/A_1963-0422-11

 

Fascinating.

Debora

 

Did someone have her made in China for trade to Eastern Europe, or was Chinese porcelain a hot style there too?

 

From the British Museum link that @Roaring20s posted -

Production date
1735-1745 (circa) (circa)
Production place
Made in: Jingdezhen
Asia: China: Jiangxi (province): Jingdezhen

Curator's comments
Harrison-Hall and Krahl 1994:
This figure is sometimes paired with a figure of a gentleman (Sargent, 1991, no.51) and was intended for display in the houses of wealthy Europeans. The figure is probably modelled after a costume print as yet untraced. Pictures of foreigners in characteristic costumes were popular in China as well as in Europe in the 18th century. Such figures were produced from moulds and other examples of this model are, for example, in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London (no. C.94-1963); in the Mottahedeh collection (Howard and Ayers, 1978, vol. I , pl. 641); in the Peabody Museum, Salem, Massachusetts, U.S.A. (Sargent, 1991, no.51); and in the Espirito Santo collection, Lisbon, Portugal (Beurdeley, 1962, pl.XVIII).View lessabout curator's comments
Ronald Fuchs "European Subjects on Chinese Porcelain" in TOCS volume 72 (2007-8), pp. 35-41 identifies the print where this figure and its male companion appear. This is by Casper Luyken " Frankfurther Jud und Juden" from Abraham a Sancta Clara's Neu eroffnete Wely Galleria ( Nuremburg 1703). An example is in the Library of the Jewish Theological Seminary.

The destinctive garments such as the ruffled collar and cap with peaked ears were prescribed by Jewish anti-sumptuary laws.View lessabout curator's comments
Bibliographic references
Krahl & Harrison-Hall 1994 / Ancient Chinese Trade Ceramics from the British Museum (32)
Ferguson 2021 / Pots, Prints and Politics: Ceramics with an Agenda, from the 14th to the 20th Century (Chapter 7, p.68, fig.79)

 

that style of dress looks pretty sumptuous to me.........

 

I'm pretty sure I've seen similar called "Dancing Dutch" woman (lady, couple), as in a Chinese depiction of European traders.

 

I'm still having a hard time seeing her as Ashkenazi Jewish, in mainly Chinese dress and with Chinese features, but she could be. There were central Asian Jews who were the ancestors of many Eastern European Jewish people. If some went further East when the Khazar Empire broke up, it could happen, and there were Jewish traders in China by that period.

 

Cool.

 

The #15 figure on this chart found online in the Jewish Encyclopedia has a similar cap and ruff according to the Jewish Encyclopedia. Frankfort on the Main, Germany. 17th & 18th centuries.

Debora

 

17th century makes more sense for the ruff and I'd bet a lot of others. I'd think a lot of those were Central Asian Jewish and North African.

 

That's really interesting. I don't think the Chinese look is meant to represent any kind of eastern Jews. It's probably the only type of human face Chinese artisans knew how to make. The woman wears traditional German-Jewish dress, and accordingly, the word 'ashkenazi' simply means German-Jewish (Ashkenaz being a biblical character - a great-grandson of Noah, whose name was adopted as the Hebrew name for Germany).

 

https://www.princessehof.nl/collectie/azië/mrs-duff
"Sculpture of female figure, China, circa 1735 - 1740, porcelain, h. 42.5 cm, on loan from a private collection.

Mrs. Duff probably forms a couple with a male variant, known as Mr. Duff. It has long been assumed that these figures were based on real people, namely VOC governor Diederik Durven and his wife Anna Catharina de Roo. Governor Durven served the VOC from 1729 to 1731 and was known in English as Governor Duff. We now know that it is not a Dutch couple, but a Jewish couple from Frankfurt.

A print from the book Neu-eröffnete Welt-Galleria (1703) shows a lady wearing exactly the same clothing as Mrs. Duff. The print was drawn by the Dutchman Caspar Luyken (1672 - 1708) for a German client. The book shows various types of costumes from around the world. During the eighteenth century, several of these books appeared, following a fashion trend at the time for exotic things. The book was most likely the model for the Chinese potters in Jingedezhen. They made the model and applied the decoration with great precision, which shows how valuable this object must have been at the time."

 

whats with the black light image? Does it show that the neck was broken and reattached?