This rare figurine tells about the long distance trade between Sweden (Finland belonged to Sweden) and China in the 18th century. Chinese craftsmen were very skillful to adopt Western motifs. They combined them with refined traditional craft techniques and made fine products for export markets, too. They mass produced a lot of products as well as some extraordinary pieces of decorative art such as this figurine.

History of the Object

This figure was made by a Cantonese portrait sculpture manufacturer in the 1750s. A Swedish Captain Carl Jacob Cronstedt (1714–1769) presumably obtained it on a visit to China. When C. J. Cronstedt passed away, it was most likely inherited by his brother Johan Gabriel Gronstedt (1720–1774), and later on by his nephew vice-admiral Carl Olof Cronstedt (1756–1820). In 1992 the Cronstedt family sold it to the museum.