Pair of cockerels

A pair of Chinese porcelain cockerels painted in famille rose enamels. Perched on a hollow, pierced rockwork base, each head turned towards the other; the talons on the front leg are splayed, and the other foot is clenched at the breast. The yellow beak is half-open, the pupils of the eyes black, and the wattles and comb bright iron-red; the body plumage iron-red, the folded wings and swelling tail picked out in green and black, the base in mottled blue, yellow and rose-pink.

Following the popularity of the blanc de Chine figures imported into Europe by the end of the seventeenth century, a great variety of porcelain figures were produced to attract this market, many of them based on Western models.

Text adapted from Chinese and Japanese Works of Art in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen: Volume I.