Two Chinese Glazed Earthenware Figures of Robed Attendants


18th century, Qing Dynasty, each glazed in blue and green, including a barefoot figure holding a basket with the remains of a stalk in the raised hand, and a figure in slippers and holding a lotus stalk in the raised hand, both on integral pierced rockwork bases and conforming ebonized wood under-bases, now presented on later carved rosewood tiered stands.
figures with under-bases overall: h. 25-3/4", 25-1/2", w. 12-1/4", 11-3/4", d. 9-1/4", 9"; stands: h. 31-1/2", w. 16-1/4", d. 12"

Provenance: Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Pettibone Case, Auburn, New York; by descent to Mr. and Mrs. Willard Erastus Case, Auburn, New York; by descent to Mr. and Mrs. Theodore Willard Case, Auburn, New York; by descent to the consignor.

Notes: The Case family were prominent in Auburn, Cayuga county, New York since railroad magnate Erastus Case (1789-1857) moved there in 1843. His son, Theodore Pettibone Case (1818-1891), was a local scholar and philanthropist, and his daughter Jane Frances Case (1813-1890) married Dr. Sylvester Willard (1799-1866) in 1830; the Cases and Willards had magnificent neighboring homes at 196 and 203 Genesee Street, respectively. Theodore's son Willard Erastus Case (1857-1918) was trained as an attorney, but his true passion was science; he obtained numerous patents from his studies in converting heat to mechanical energy. He inherited the Willard home - now known as the Willard-Case Mansion - in 1916, and he and his son Theodore Willard Case (1888-1944), who shared his father's enthusiasm for light and energy, converted one of the ground's greenhouses to a laboratory.
It was here that Theodore W. Case would invent the light-sensitive thalofide cell used as a top-secret ship-to-ship signaling system during World War I. Discoveries made during the development of this vacuum tube led to the technology of using light to record sound on film and the first true "talking" motion pictures. (His charming test Gus Visser and His Singing Duck (1925) is conserved by the National Film Registry.) After a falling out with the notoriously litigious Lee De Forest, developer of the Phonofilm process (largely derived from Case's technology), Case sold the talking picture patents to William Fox of the Fox film corporation in 1926 and worked with Fox technicians to develop the groundbreaking Movietone process.
The success of Movietone and true talking pictures made Case a very wealthy man, and he moved to a new mansion on South Auburn Street. The Chinese figures in the present lot, which had been displayed in the entrance of the Willard-Case Mansion, followed to a place of prominence in the entrance hall of the new South Auburn Street home. The Willard-Case Mansion, and the Case Research Lab on its grounds, are now the Cayuga Museum of History and Art.

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