Surrounded by several children, as traditionally depicted, the group is set on an original ivory veneered pedestal with an ebony plinth and base, 29.5cm.
The 1804 Burghley Inventory records: ‘No. 52 Jewell Closet, a female figure & boyes carved in ivory.’
Some of the finest European ivory figures were carved in the French city of Dieppe from the 17th to the 19th Centuries.
Ivory was readily available due to the port’s close trading links with Africa.
