The Chinese man is sitting with crossed legs on a yellow cushion with four golden tassels, the monkey sitting on his right knee with his mouth open and holding in his right hand a piece of apple. The Chinese man is watching it with opened mouth and open ears, as if both were immersed in conversation, he is holding in his left had a red apple, dressed with black Chinese hat and gold border, white dress with iron red and purple dot and cross flowers as well as iron red belt, turquoise collar, cuffs and shoe. The Chinese woman is sitting with crossed legs on a royal blue cushion with four golden tassels, a parrot is perching on her left hand, his beak open. The Chinese woman is looking at it with her mouth slightly open as is she were listening to the parrot, holding in her right hand a piece of white sugar. She is dressed in a pointed pagoda hat and white tassel, turquoise, iron red and purple shaped parts with golden borders, yellow dress with colourful Indian flower branches, purple collar, cuffs and belt as well as gold brooch, iron red shoe, both are painted with fine and expressive incarnadine, on stepped octagonal socle with gold edges, both with hollow glazed socle for the incense burners, both with adhesive label Brian Haughton, London, Chinese man height 16 cm, plinth at side with minor firing crack that is painted over as a green leaf, base minimally chipped, Chinese woman height 17.5 cm, gold edges slightly scuffed, Meißen, underglaze blue sword mark, shaped and painted in 1735-1739, model by Johann Friedrich Eberlein, December 1735 (Ru)

See Lit.:
: Collection Irwin Untermeyer (Hackenbroch, Cambridge 1956, fig. 25, plate 19) now Collection The Metropolitan Museum of Art, with matching counterpiece;
See Lit.:
: In Porzellan verzaubert, Die Figuren Johann Joachim Kändlers in Meißen aus der Sammlung Pauls-Eisenbeiss Basel, 1993, p 90, 91, fig.; work report by Eberlein from December 1735, 4) 'Ein Pagoten Weibel mit einem Papagei und Postament von Dohne boßiret; 5) Ein Pagotte mit einem Affen von Dohne boßiret';
See Lit.:
: Frühes Meissener Porzellan, Kostbarkeiten aus deutschen Privatsammlungen, Hetjens-Museum, Dusseldorf 1997, p 59, fig. 33; the figures are intended as counterpieces and were modelled in December 1735 by J. F. Eberlein, 1695- 1739. They are considered proof of the particular value and great renown attached to Eastern Asian culture by European royal courts during the first half of the eighteenth century. The richly ornamented, elaborate dress of the Chinese and their seated position with crossed legs on a red parade cushion combine fabled and fantastic notions of foreign peoples with Baroque representation.