Sense of Touch and Sight figurine

This Chelsea porcelain figure represents the sense of touch. A seated lady holds a hawk and rests her foot on a turtle. The porcelain body is of a particularly fine pure white colour. The work was modelled by Joseph Willems (1715-1766), one of the finest figure modellers of the Chelsea porcelain factory. Born in Brussels, early in his career he worked at the Tournai porcelain factory. He arrived at Chelsea in about 1749 and was responsible for many of the figures and figure groups produced at manufactory during the 1750s and early 1760s. These can be considered as essentially fine sculptures in porcelain.