Now a days in nearly every home there is a fire place and above that the is a mantelpiece, and on nearly every mantelpiece there is surely  to be some sort t of ornament. This often includes a pair or several figures.   Ever since man found out that moulded clay formed with the hands and that figures could be made of people, and animals.

This can be seen  form the figures taken from Chinese tombs, as in most early cultures, it was customary to slaughter most of the household retinue upon the death of a Prince or  Emperor,  wife's, Stewarts and other retainers, pets horses and even livestock where expected to follow the deceased to the afterlife.  This custom was as unpopular as it was wasteful, by the time of Qin (Ch'in) dynasty (221-206 BC) life-size clay effigies had been substituted for humans.

But even this was time labour intensive, and during the Han dynasty the burial of much smaller pottery figurines were more usual. These funerary ceramics were generally made of a dark grey earthenware which was left either unglazed, covered with a fine white slip and coloured, or covered in a green glaze.  Their subject matter is often informal and domestic, a pigsty complete with pigs. Collectors may pay a higher price for the figures with a green glaze.

The same applies to the Tang dynasty tomb figures, which were prepared on a production line basis, arms, legs, torsos, heads, and bases were assembled, smoothed and individually detailed and fired.   Some animal and human figures were left unglazed, others were painted or covered in monochrome or a splash of egg and spinach glaze.,   the early introduction of blue to a figurine would boost the price..  It is important to take care with cheaper unglazed pottery figures, tough, they can easily be forged using moulds taken from genuine pieces and then distressed, to make them look older.

The common method of aging include snapping off the head arms and legs then gluing them back on, and encrusting the figures yellow tomb earth saved from the bellies of real Tang horses. Glazed figurines are easy to forge.  The later Ming tomb figurines, include  human beings, chairs, tables and domestic alters, these are decorated with glazes of yellow, green, purple, and turquoise blue.  These model give an insight into the furnishings of the time.

Human and animal figures for the purpose other than funerary offerings, and dating from the same period, include Buddhist statues made in celadon ware.  Their often unglazed terracotta hands and face are in vivid contrast to the rich green celadon glaze on the rest of the body, the price of a single piece depends on quality of the glaze and complexity of the modelling.

Fantastic figures of the Buddhist deities, in particular of the Guanyin, the goddess of mercy, where made in blanc de chine porcelain in the late 17th century.  The figures were made of paste which, at its best, has the density and appearance of ivory.  Some blanc de chine  figures also have a potters mark impressed on the back.  A few where painted when they arrived in Europe.  Figures from the late 17th century and 18th century tend to be more solid than the 19th century pieces, while examples from the 20th century have less delicate modelling and less subtle glazing.

It was probably Buddhist figures such as those that inspired the earliest European porcelain figures, magots or models of humorist little Chinese Buddha's made on the continent at Meissen, St Cloud, Chantilly  and Mennecy, from the 1720s to the 40s and in Britain around 1780.

The European porcelain figurine  as we know it today, however developed not from burial goods or religious models, but as centrepieces for banqueting  tables for the aristocracy.  Soon after its founding in 1710, the porcelain factory at Meissen  was commissioned to produce both monumental, life-sized porcelain sculptures of animals and birds for Augustus the Strong's  Japanese palace at Dresden, and small figurines intended as table ornaments. These are generally 12.5-20 cm high, and were modelled by two sculptors called, Johann Joachim  Kandler and Johann Gottlob Kirchner.

Early porcelain figures of humans subjects were intended to be seen from all sides and were the illusion of movement through a vertical twist or flourish, a pose known as contraposta.  Commedia dell'arte characters, such as Harlequin  and Columbine, birds and animals, risqué groups of pastoral couples, and recognisable court figures were all made, as were humerous studies of monkeys dressed as humans.
Meissen figures of 1730-70 usually stand on a solid base, which, in a few of the surviving pieces, is scratched with a KHC inventory number., these figures and groups can fetch up to £25,000, far more than the less lively 18th century figurines designed to be kept in cabinets and viewed from one side only.

Meissen figures of the 19th century are generally conservative, and hark back to the previous century, large groups of 18th century children and allegorical figures relating to industry stand 30-46 cm high and can fetch £1400-£4000.  These 19th century figures and groups were much imitated, but original pieces are much heavier than copies, the modelling is crisper and more finely detailed, the enamelling is superior, and seems to almost be part of the glaze, especially the face painting, the gilding is a deeper tone of gold, and the marks are different, the under glazed blue crossed swords painted in a very similar way.

Other factories indulged also, Franz Anton Bustelli at Nymphenburg and Johann Peter Melchior at the Hochst factory were among the figure sculptors working elsewhere in Germany in the 18th century.  Bustelli's delicately featured figurines often have their head and arms at angles, giving a powerful zig zag line, while the rustic, plump faced children by Melchior have intense, dark brown eyes.

Soft paste figures made at the French factories of Vincennes and Serves include work by the master 18th century sculptor Etienne Maurice Falconet.  His three dimensional interpretation of groups from painting by Francois Boucher were often left in the biscuit< unglazed and were produced from the same moulds over a number of years.

In the late 19th century, large coloured biscuit figures and busts were made in Germany and France, once again in the 18th century style.  Elaborate  Art Nouveau pieces made at the Bohemian factory of royal dux and standing 50-64 cm high, are usually mat finished and muted in colour.  In the 1930s white porcelain figures and groups with bold Art Deco lines and forms were modelled in southern Germany and Austria.

In Britain very few earthenware  figures were made, or any where else in Europe, before about 1700, but early to mid 18th century white, salt glazed stoneware pieces are now among the most sought after ceramics, some are free standing and single, while others are grouped on a pew.  Staffordshire potter john Astbury worked on earthenware in the early 18th century.  His figures of Scottish bagpiper, mounted dragons or a party taking tea can change hands for £5,000 - £30,000 , Astbury  products from the mid 18th century are covered in splash green, yellow and manganese purple glazes.

In the same tradition are often the fabulous cream ware figures and groups made during the late 18th century and early 19th centuries and attributed to the wood family.  They include music makers, shepherdesses and rustic swains, Falstaffs, Neptune's and other gods and goddesses and can be recognised  by the splash and transparent colours that leave large parts of the figure glazed but uncoloured.

Highly coloured Staffordshire pearl ware figures and groups of  the 1820s feature pairs of small children, fashionable dandies or naively modelled animals, most standing before a flattened tree.  By the mid 19th century this tradition had evolved into Staffordshire flatbacks.  These are one-sided models, figures or groups slip cast in a very small number of parts then assembled, coloured by a team of children and sold for a few pence each