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I recently received a gift of a porcelain mudman. Where can I go to try to identify its' origin.
"Mudmen" were and still are made at the Shiwan potteries at Foshan (and later at Yangjiang) in the Guangdong Province.
They have been making figures from clay since at least the 18th century, possibly much earlier.
Probably they started out by making figures to temples and then added figures for export to their line of products when the China trade got going.
I have no specific sources at hand right now but I know there were a large exhibition at the Hong Kong Fung Ping Shan Museum, in 1979. and one at the Chinese Culture Center in San Francisco, in 1994.
Quite possibly there are still exhibition catalogs from these exhibitions available. The easiest way to find one of these would be to try some of my book links.
Thank you for your interest.
Best regards,
Jan-Erik Nilsson
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