183. RARE STATUETTE D'UN ÉTRANGER EN BRONZE DORÉ Époque Kangxi A RARE GILT-BRONZE FIGURE OF A FOREIGNER Kangxi period Finely cast, seated in a kneeling position on a separately cast square pedestal base, his left leg bent and his right knee raised, his right hand raised above his head and supporting a kapala, his left hand in front of him, dressed in an elaborate long apron gathered and tied under his large belly, the hems incised with stylised scrolls, a fine shawl draped around his shoulders, with ends falling over his arms and legs to the ground, his face with a fierce expression, with bulging eyes, bushy eyebrows, a flaring nose and an unruly beard, the hair combed and parted. The figure: 12.8cm (5in) high; Height with pedestal: 18cm (7 1/8in) (2). 清康熙 銅鎏金胡人像 Provenance: Collection of Horst Faas (1933-2012), Munich, acquired from Hugo Ruef Auction, Munich, ca. 1986, lot 1757, acquired from his collection 來源： 慕尼黑Horst Faas（1933-2012）收藏，約於1986年得自Hugo Ruef拍賣行，慕尼黑，編號1757，現藏家得自上述來源 Representations of foreigners depicted with large rounded eyes and exaggerated bushy eyebrows and thick, curly beards appear in the arts from at least the Tang period. This fascination with foreigners and their different appearance continued well into the 18th century when the Qing court commissioned a number of scrolls depicting tribute bearers from foreign lands. Figures cast in the round in gilt-bronze and dated to the Kangxi and Qianlong periods are more commonly made with cloisonné details, see, for example, a pair of cloisonné enamel figures of foreigners depicted in a similar stance and with similar facial features, dated to the late Ming period, from the Juan Jose Amezaga Collection, sold in Christie's Paris, 7 December 2007, lot 7. Compare also with a group of four small figures of foreigners kneeling to support a gilt-bronze and cloisonné enamel censer, dated to the early Qing dynasty, illustrated in The Complete Collection of Treasures of the Palace Museum. Metal-Bodied Enamel Ware, Beijing, 2011, p.106, no.79. See also a figure of a foreign tribute bearer holding up an orb, with a similarly designed vest, also kneeling on a square base, sold Christie's Hong Kong, 26 April 1999, lot 561. See also another gilt-bronze figure from this rare group, published in Gerald Hawthorn, 2000 Years of Chinese and Japanese Sculpture, London, 2000, n.9.