CIRCA 1748, FAINT BLUE CROSSED SWORDS MARK

As Meredith Chilton points out, 'this character should probably be renamed "The Masquerader", as neither his costume nor his posture has anything to do with the legal profession, nor do they indicate an actor dressed as a lawyer. Rather, this costume was inspired by a popular disguise worn in Venice by both men and women particularly, but by no means exclusively, during Carnival...this costume was adopted all over Europe in the eighteenth century by participants in the popular masquerades'. See Meredith Chilton, Harlequin Unmasked, the Commedia dell'Arte and Porcelain Sculpture, Singapore, 2001, pp. 58-61 for a full discussion of this figure and for illustrations of the example in the Gardiner Museum, Toronto, see figs. 74 and 75.

See the example of this figure sold Christie's 31 March 2008, lot 67, and another sold Christie's London, 2 November 2016, lot 189.