MANUFACTURE: Nymphenburg (GERMANY)
SCULPTOR: Franz Antonio Bustelli (1723-1763) in 1757
NAME: Chinese Man with Chime
SERIES: Chinoiserie
NUMBER: 484
CONDITION: Missing stick in his hand. NO BOX.
HEIGHT: 7 1/2 inch / 19 cm
WIDTH: 3 1/4 inch / 8 cm
DEEP: 2 1/2 inch / 6 cm
CATEGORY: porcelain ceramic statue figure figurine sculpture
SKU#: 114605
WARRANTY: 7 days returns accepted if item doesn't match description

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This figure is one of a group of seventeen themed figures designed as table decoration by the great modeller at the Nymphenburg factory, Franz Anton Bustelli. The group includes a priest and various children and adult attendants, some playing musical instruments or singing, others bowing down in worship and all positioned around the central small figure of a idol or 'pagod' seated on a tall pedestal.
Bustelli's figure illustrates the continuing fascination for the exotic in fashionable society. Oriental figures had been modelled by Kandler at the influential Meissen porcelain factory from about 1740 onwards. However, an interesting fresco in the Chinese pavilion (Pagodenburg) in the grounds of Nymphenburg castle, executed in by Johann Anton Gumpp in 1719, may have inspired Bustelli to use this particular format for his integrated group. It shows an idol figure seated on a towering pedestal surrounded by a group of worshippers.
The employment of the young sculptor Franz Anton Bustelli in November of 1754 proved to be a streak of luck for the manufactory. Until his death in 1763, this exceptional artist created over 150 figures for table decoration. His incomparably charming and graceful figures are full of fantasy and tell stories of unfulfilled romance, describe the lives and professions of simple people and escort one to far off destinations and heavenly sps.