Nodding head figures became popular among Westerners as objects of curiosity that communicated the exotic customs and costumes of Chinese culture. These figures were usually constructed by molding clay over bamboo frames. They 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. Final details and embellishments could then be added, including as human hair, horn fingernails, earrings and instruments (see W. Sargent, Treasures of Chinese Export Ceramics from the Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, 2012 pp. 484-497 for a further discussion). Because these objects were not glazed nor fired in a kiln, they are more fragile and experience greater wear over time than their equivalents in glazed porcelain.

Nodding head figures often were portraits of individuals, and others served as generalized representations of a various classes or occupations. Small-scale nodding head figures, such as the present lot, were known to the Western market as early as 1756, when Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart KT (1 May 1708 – 10 March 1770) recorded in his account book ‘nine Chinese small Clay Japan figures’ (see P. Ferguson, ‘Luxury Objects and Objects d’Art’, ed. R. Cowell, Ham House 400 Years of Collecting and Patronage, Yale, New Haven, 2013, pp. 309-324). A group of 'twenty-four figures of Chinese burnt clay with coloring, 13 inches high, representing the Emperor and Empress of China and the whole Imperial household' are also inventoried in the Royal Danish Kunstkammer (see B. Dam-Mikkelsen and T. Lundbaek, Ethnographic Objects in the Royal Danish Kunstkammer 1650-1800, Copenhagen, 1980, pp. 173-179).