Modeled standing, wearing a blue headdress and ruff, a dark blue cape about her shoulders embellished with whorling clouds in the Chinese taste, her yellow and green bodice with black ribbons and an iron-red bow about her waist, above a pink skirt, pearls around her wrists
16⁷⁄₈ in. (42.8 cm.) high

Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd, New York
By descent from the above to the late owner, 1992

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Lot Essay

In the past this rare figure had been identified as a Dutch woman, but Ron Fuch's discovery of an engraving by Casper Luyken entitled Franckfurther Jud und Judin in the costume book, Neu-eröffnete Welt-Galleria, printed in Nurenburg in 1703, has resulted in a reidentification⁽¹⁾. Due to the striking similarities in the costume, the figure is now thought to be wearing traditional Ashkenazi dress. Similar examples of this large figure can be found in the Victoria & Albert Museum, London (accession no. C.94-1963); the British Museum, London (museum no. 1963,0422.11); and the example with her male companion at Winterthur Museum, Garden and Library, Delaware (museum object no. 2000.0061.091).

1. See Ronald Fuchs "European Subjects on Chinese Porcelain", Transactions of Oriental Ceramic Society, vol. 72, 2007-2008, pp. 35-41.