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| Chinese export porcelain European woman c. 1735-45 Victoria & Albert Museum |
Constantine Alexander Ionides (1833-1900) toward the end of his life concentrated less on buying new paintings and more on buying precious objects. He made, for example, a fascinating collection of 18th-century export porcelain figures from China depicting Europeans. Curators at the Victoria & Albert Museum speculate that the Chinese artists who created the figures may well never have set eyes on a living European. Almost certainly the immediate models for several of these figures (including the woman in the horned headdress, above) would have been European engravings.
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| Chinese export porcelain European woman c. 1730-50 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European woman c. 1730-50 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European couple 18th century Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European couple 18th century Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European couple late 18th century Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European woman c. 1700 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European man c. 1700 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European woman c. 1760 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European man c. 1760-80 Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European gardener 1760s Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European gardener 1760s Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain Dutch couple late 18th century Victoria & Albert Museum |
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| Chinese export porcelain European couple dancing late 18th century Victoria & Albert Museum |