An extremely rare and highly important pair of Chantilly combined Figural and Animal Models modelled in the Chinese taste,  the seated Male figures riding on the backs of recumbent Lions.  Each figure in greeting attitude, arms akimbo and wearing full length bordered, lapelled and cuffed robes. The beautifully modelled lions with full tousled manes enclosing their benign faces. Each model raised up on irregularly moulded rectangular bases.

This incredibly rare pair of Chinoiserie models comes from the second period of production at the manufactory founded by Louis Henri de Bourbon Prince de Conde. Conde was an avid collector of East Asian porcelains, both Chinese and Japanese, and his Chantilly manufactory's first decade of output showed the marked influence of Arita porcelain, particularly in the "Kakiemon" palette of soft iron red and blue green.  Following on from this and to satisfy the growing taste for decoration in the Chinese taste, an array of new designs for figures and wares were produced to fill aristocratic interiors with an unrivalled vision of Chinoiserie or Cathay.

 There is only one other (single) example of this rare form recorded, it is coloured and is part of the Norweb collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art, see Genevieve Le Duc, Porcelaine tendre de Chantilly au XVIIIe siecle, (1996), p. 146.