Each seated with head facing forward, its pink spotted tongue protruding below its muzzle, the staring eyes enamelled in turquoise below the clipped ears, with gilded bells suspended from collars round the necks, the bushy tails curled against the haunches, the whole covered in fur pencilled in rouge-de-fer.
Provenance
The E. A. Boman Collection. Sold at auction November 1888, lot 915.
Literature
For similar examples see Veiga, pl. 76; Beurdeley, Porcelain of the East India Companies, fig. 81 (full page), from the Essayam Collection, Lisbon; Howard and Ayers, China for the West, pl. 623 (full page); for a model shown lying down see Beurdeley, pl. 623, from the Onassis collection.
Although the pug dog is native to China, these very lifelike Chinese porcelain models were based on European models supplied for the purpose. Model by Kaendler made at Meissen from 1734.