This figure is a hugely rare item. It belongs to a small group of similar pieces which were either modelled in Canton or, more unusually, made in India or Europe by Chinese craftsmen. Some of these surviving figures appear in dated inventories; a few of them are named. This figure is anonymous though it differs from most others in that the gentleman is in a reclining posture, a position very redolent of small European statuettes of the eighteenth century with which he can usefully be compared.

A study of his clothes provides helpful, though not definitive, pointers towards dating. The deep cuffs on his blue gown seem to be a feature of the 1730s and this style continued on informal clothing for a decade after this. His neckwear, the stock with frilled shirt, was starting to come into fashion in the 1730s. If the figure was from the 1720s, we might expect him to be wearing a cravat. During the eighteenth century, men replaced their wigs at home with nightcaps in the form of turbans and other types of soft hat. The National Portait Gallery in London retains black and white photographs of the V&A's figure, taken in c. 1931. One of these photographs shows the figure wearing a hat. A slide copy of one of these NPG photographs is in the RF, though it does not show the hat. It seemed to be velvet or fur. In any event, the hat had been lost by the time John Piper published his article, 'A Chinese Artist in England' in Country Life of 18 July, 1952. This article speculates that the Royal College of Physician's figure of Dr Anthony Askew and the V&A's figure were made by Chitqua, a Chinese modeller who visited Engalnd between 1769 and 1772. We know that the NPG's own figure of Joseph Collet was made in Madras by Chinqua. It was decided to replace the V&A's figure with an appropriate hat and to this end students on the MA in the History of Dress and Textiles at the University of Southampton prepared a dossier of possible types. This is now in the RF 1999/114. Working from this dossier (pictures of V&A extant nightcaps/portraits from NPG etc), Christina Newman, FES sewing volunteer, made four hats (green, cream, blue and red) which are now kept with the figure, though unregistered.

The figure originally belonged to Miss Ursula Radford, whose niece, Mrs Chloe Morton, then gave it to the museum. There is no other history connected to the figure although it is clear that several people knew about it. Miss Radford was a member of the Society of Antiquaries. Although Miss Radford herself seems to have understood its rarity value, her heirs remember playing with it as children. Consequently, when it came into the V&A, it was in a broken and extremely fragile state. It was conserved by the V&A's Sculpture Conservation Section who hold the records of work. The other figure in the V&A is FE.32-1981 and is a standing figure. This figure was conserved prior to coming into the V&A and a comparison can been drawn from the two styles of conservation.

The V&A's reclining figure is not the only piece to include a piece of furniture or other accessory. The Danish Royal Collections and the Peabody Museum of Salem, for example, have figures sitting on Chinese chairs. The Peabody also has the only other known reclining figure, supposedly of Thomas Hall, reposing on a wooden couch. This was purchased from Bonham's in London from their 13 June sale 2002. The figure in the Dorking Museum in Surrey is standing next to a tree. Most figures stand alone. They stand as a testament to the ability of Chinese craftsmen to represent people from another part of the world in a lifelike manner.